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REPORT OF COMMANDER W. F.' LYNCH, 

IN EELATION TO HIS MISSION TO THE COAST OF AFEICA. 



U. S. Steamer Alleghany, 

Potomac River, October 17, 1853. 
Sir : Herewith I respectfully submit my official report of a mission 
to Africa, with appendix, maps, and sketches. 

I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 

W. F. LYNCH, Commander. 
Hon. J. C. Dobbin, Secretary of the Navy. 

I^HILADELPHIA, September 5, 1S53. 

Sir : In obedience to an order of the department, dated October 
25, 1852, I left the United States on the 13th of November following, 
for the west coast of Africa. 

Touching at TenerifFe for information, I proceeded thence direct to 
the coast, in order to form some idea of the distance inland to, and the 
trending of, the nearest and most northern mountain range. 

Africa — represented as torrid, pestilential, savage, and mysterious, 
reserved and guarded by the most terrible and resistless influences of 
nature — has been truly described as nowhere letting into its bosom the 
waters of the ocean, and, in hke manner, projecting into the sea no im- 
portant peninsulas. From the straits of Gibraltar to the Cameroons, 
the tame monotony of the coast is interrupted but by occasional isolated 
promontories, which can onl}^ be termed lofty by comparison. 

From Cape Caut^n to the Great Desert the principal elevations are 
"Ghebel Hadid" and the "Heights of Idantenan," and from the north 
boundary of the desert to Cape Verde, "Los Matillos" and the "Hills 
of Cintra" alone break the uniformity of a low and sandy coast. 

On the 13th of January, of the present year, I saw Cape Verde, the 
westernmost point of Africa, (in north latitude 14° 45^) which was first 
discovered by the Portuguese navigator, Fernandes, about the middle 
of the fifteenth century. In each direction, north and south, the coast 
stretched beyond the line of vision, in a naiTow strip of sand, fringed 
with green; except the extremity of the cape which threw up two de- 
tached hillocks, of inconsiderable elevation, resembling islets in the 
distance. On the hillocks were many of the baobab or monkey tree, 
(Ada7isonia digitata,) which gives to them that verdant appearance 
from whence the cape derives its name. This tree is liable to be at- 
tacked by a fungus, which vegetates without destroying life, and ren- 
ders the part attacked as soft as pith. 

The trunks of such trees are hollowed into chambers by the natives, 
in which they suspend the dead bodies of those to whom burial has 
been denied. There they become mummies, dried and weU preserved, 
without being embalmed. This is somewhat analogous to the custom 
of our Omaha Indians, who place the bodies of the dead in the crotches 
of trees. Like all other plants of the malvaccee order, the baobab is 



2 



H. Doc. 1. 



emollient and mucilaginous, and Europeans sometimes use it as a 
febrifuge and tonic. The fruit is large, oblong, pulpy, full of seeds, 
and of an agreeable acid flavor; and its juice, when sweetened, is 
drunk as a specific in putrid and pestilential fevers. The mandingoes 
convey it to the southern and eastern districts of Africa, and through 
the Arabs it reaches Morocco and Egypt. The ashes of the fruit, 
mixed with palm oil, serve for soap. The flowers are large, white, 
and handsome ; and in their many petals and violet mass of stamens, 
bear some resemblance to the white poppy. Both flowers and fruit 
are pendant. The baobab attains the greatest age and is the largest 
tree known in the world, its trunk measuring, sometimes, ninety leet 
in circumference. At one year old its diameter is one, and its height 
five inches; at thirty years its diameter is two feet, and its height 
about twenty ; at one thousand years its diameter is twelve or fourteen, 
and its height about sixty feet ; and at five thousand years its lateral 
has so far outstripped its perpendicular growth that the diameter will 
be thirty feet, while its height scarce exceeds seventy feet. The roots 
are of a most extraordinary length, and in a tree seventy-seven feet in 
circumference the top root measured one hundred and ten feet. The 
foliage is very abundant, and the drooping boughs, with their mass of 
green, almost hide the stem — presenting a hemispherical mass sixty to 
seventy feet high and four hundred feet in circumference. Rene Caille 
describes one he saw in the valley of the Niger, which, in size, must 
have surpassed the celebrated plain-tree of Lycia, in the hollow of 
which Licinius Mutianus feasted twenty-one guests. 

Above the Senegal, on the desert of Zahara, the line of sand is no 
longer bordered with green ; and from the powerful refraction there 
ensues a mirage, which so blends the water with the land as to present 
the appearance of an illimitable sea. On that coast perished the hap- 
less crew of the Medusa. 

It was a soft, golden morning when we made the land ; but the sun 
rose yellow and dim, enveloped in a bank of vapor. In the space of 
an hour we had bidden adieu to the fresh wind that prevails from 30° 
north latitude to this parallel, and exchanged the agitated but not angry 
waves which curled before it for hot and stifling airs and a scarce un- 
dulating sea, curtained with a mist formed of its own evaporation. 
The northeast trade- wind, so cool and invigorating, had given place to 
the dry and parching harmattan, which, under its other names of 
samiel, simoon, and sirocco, sweeps across the deserts of Arabia and 
Africa. During this wind, which, in its flaws of heat, resembles more 
the blast of a furnace than living air, the atmosphere is hot, dry, and 
rarified to an almost insufferable degree, and sometimes becomes suf- 
focating from the clouds of dust and sand driven before it. But we 
were not sensible of the strong aromatic odor wafted from the land, 
which regaled the senses of Hanno and his Carthagenian mariners in 
their voyage of discovery upwards of two thousand years ago. 

A few hours after passing Cape Verde I arrived at Goree, a volcanic 
island, formed of basalt and sand, which, with some settlements on the 
Senegal, three degrees to the north, the French have held since 1816. 
This island is about half a mile long and a quarter wide. It is strongly 
fortified; and, from its natural position, the fortress on its summit 



H. Doc. 1. 



3 



is almost impregnable — three sides being perpendicular and washed 
by the sea, and the fourth a precipitous ascent from the town. 
The population of the town and garrison is estimated at from six to 
eight thousand. Besides the fort on the summit of the hill, the place 
is strongly fortified, but could not long withstand a siege, as it is almost 
wholly dependent on the adjacent main for wood and water. It is the 
great entrepot of the French colonial possessions in West Africa, north 
of the equator. 

There were in port, when we arrived, seven or eight French, one 
American, and twoEngUsh merchant vessels — besides a French squad- 
ron of six sail; mostly steamers. The latter were preparing for a hos- 
tile expedition against a tribe to the south. 

The river Senegal is supposed to rise in the mountains of Foota 
Jallon, and on the eastern slope of the same range it is surmised that 
the Niger has its source. In about 15^ north latitude, the Senegal is 
joined by several tributaries, and, after passing Galam and the falls of 
Feloo, makes a circuitous bend to the northwest along the borders of 
the desert, and, after a course of upwards of 900 miles, empties into 
the Atlantic at Fort St. Louis. In its lower course, it flows between 
the Great Desert on the one hand, and a vast alluvial plain on the 
other, and becomes so swollen during the periodic rains, and sweeps 
with such a resistless current into the sea, that the latter, which, in the 
dry season, impregnates the river for upwards of a hundred miles from 
its mouth, is driven back with so fearful a recoil, that for a mile with- 
out the bar is one wide sheet of foam. At such times, entrance is im- 
possible; hence the selection of the anchorage of Goree, which is at 
all times accessible. 

Where it flows by Tuabo, the capital of Lower Galam, the Sene- 
gal, in the rainy season, presents a magnificent sight. It fills the plain, 
and rushes at the rate of six knots an hour by the bases of the hills, 
which are clothed to their summits with the richest verdure, while the 
surface of the stream is dotted with uprooted trees, on which are seen 
standing large aigrettes, whose snow-white feathers reflect the rays of 
a brilliant sun, and form a pleasant contrast to the green reeds around 
them and the brown trunks of the trees whereon they stand. 

The principal articles of export from this region are the gutta-percha 
and the gum-senegal — the latter an exudation from a species of acacia, 
the bark of which is split by desiccation during the prevalence of the 
harmattan. Towards the close of the last century, this gum was dis- 
covered to be more mucilaginous and adhesive than that from Arabia, 
which, in the arts, it has almost wholly superseded. There are now 
upwards of two millions of pounds exported annually, mostly to France. 

The French have settlements far up the Senegal, and control the 
trade of which it is the outlet; although they are not masters of the 
country — a country presenting a vast and interesting field for explora- 
tion. In its far interior, in the midst of barbarous nations, a semi- 
civilized tribe has been recently discovered, which has some religious no- 
tions analogous to the Christian, and possess an alphabet and a mode of 
writing, which, from their account, they derived from a white stranger 
who died among them, and whose memory is revered as that of a sage. 



4 



H. Doc. 1. 



It was doubtless the traveller Compagnon, who, it is known, pene- 
trated as far as the wooded desert of Simboni. 

Except the island of Goree, and the hillocks crowned with foliage 
beyond it, which mark the peninsula of Cape Verde, there was pre- 
sented to the eye, in every direction, inland and along the coast, a 
mdhotonous level of green, relieved here and there by the feathery tuft 
of a majestic palm. These were the only interruptions to the in-shore 
horizon. 

From Goree I proceeded down the coast, eighty miles, to the 
Gambia; the land throughout the entire distance being low and densely 
wooded, except in one place, where a range of sand-hills presented 
perpendicular faces washed by the sea. Lying at anchor in the Gambia 
was the United States ship John Adams, rendering assistance to an 
American merchant vessel in distress. I felt much reheved when I 
descried our ensign at her peak. Her presence relieved me from the 
necessity, for which I had prepared by the purchase of charts and in- 
struments, for making my reconnoissance in a small coasting vessel 
manned by Africans. It was with infinite satisfaction, therefore, that 
I grasped the hand of her manly and most excellent commander, and 
exchanged greetings with her intelligent officers, and looked upon her 
snow-white decks, her splendid battery, and clean, cheerful, and well- 
disciplined crew. 

I presented to Commander Barron the order of the department, and 
he professed his readiness to carry out its views. I likewise informed 
him of the application I made just prior to my departure, asking to be 
allowed to extend the reconnoissance to the river Gaboon, near the 
equator, and showed him the reply of the department granting the per- 
mission, if it could be done in time. With every disposition to facilitate 
my movements, Commander B. stated that he could take me along the 
entire coast of Liberia, stopping at every place I might deem it neces- 
sary to examine ; or he could proceed with me direct to the Gaboon, 
and from thence return to Porto Pray a ; but that he had not on board a 
sufficient quantity of provisions for both services. 

As my orders were positive respecting Liberia, and only contingent 
as to the Gaboon, and as I had an expectation, scarce short of cer- 
tainty, that in six weeks the sloop Marion or the steamer Vixen would 
be on the coast, I accepted his first proposition. 

Like the Senegal, the Gambia has its source in the mountains of 
Footah Jallon, near that of the Falerne, one of the tributaries of the 
former. It is a powerful and rapid stream, and is navigable four hun- 
dred miles to the falls of Barriconda. Its whole course is about seven 
hundred miles, setting first to the northwest, and then to the west, and 
falls into the Atlantic at north latitude 13°. The Gambia is a mag- 
nificent water-road, which has never been thoroughly explored by 
Europeans; but there is a current belief that, by one of its tributaries, 
it is connected with the Senegal. 

During the dry season, from November until May, the influence of 
the tide is perceptible some distance up; but while the rains prevail, 
and for several weeks after, a mighty volume of water sweeps down in 
an almost resistless current, and after overflowing its lower banks it 
encounters the long and narrow island of St. Mary's, which deflects it 



H. Doc. 1. 



5 



a little to the north, when it spreads out and becomes lost in the sea. 
The island, but slightly elevated above the surface of the water, forms 
one side of the noble estuary, and lies lengthwise close adjacent to the 
southern shore. The two low, sandy shores are ten miles distant at 
the river's mouth, where an extensive shoal forms two separate channels. 

On the north extremity of the island of St. Mary's, which is only one 
foot above high-water mark, just at the elbow round which sweeps the 
river, is the town of Bathurst, an English commercial and military set- 
tlement. 

The soil of the island is sand and gravel, iatermixed with a brown 
oxide of iron; and, judging from the overgrown weeds in the outskirts 
of the town and the size of the vegetables within it, is more prolific than, 
from its appearance, one would suppose. Towards the main land, the 
soil is evidently an alluvial deposite from above. 

Bathurst is a very handsome place, containing some twelve or four- 
teen fine houses built of stone, the residences of the merchants, besides 
the hospital, the government house, and the barracks for the accommo- 
dation of English officers and black soldiers — the non-commissioned 
officers and privates of British regiments serving in Africa being re- 
cruited from the negroes of the West Indies. 

There are three companies of a West India regiment, always short 
of their complement, which compose the garrison of the settlements, 
being distributed among .the stations comprising McCarthy's island, 175 
miles up the river; Fort Bullen, on the Barra shore, opposite to Bathurst; 
Cape St. Mary's, eight miles distant, in the kingdom of Combo ; and 
Bathurst, the seat of government. 

The government, as in that of all the British colonies in Africa, is 
administered by a governor and legislative council, whose acts are sent 
home for royal approval. The Europeans resident here number about 
forty, including officers, merchants, some Wesleyan missionaries, two or 
three ladies, and as many of that celestial band, the Sisters of Charity. 
The rest of the population number about 2,000; consisting of Africans, 
mostly Jaloffs, Mandingoes, some Foulahs, and an occasional Moor who 
has strayed down from the interior. Amidst many discordant sounds, 
the ear of the stranger, as he walks through the market at Bathurst, 
will be struck occasionally by accents from female lips, which he will 
at once pronounce the softest and most melodious he ever heard. There 
is a plaintiveness in the tone, and a music in the flexure of the voice, 
which is indescribable. I could not learn of what tribe the speakers 
were, for it is more difficult to designate the country of the female than 
of the male. 

The Mandingo language is considered more melodious than that of 
the Foulahs, while the later is said to be more copious and to possess 
a structure which would indicate a former high condition of the race. 

Seen through the fohage of the trees in front, the buildings of the town 
present an imposing and beautiful appearance from the harbor. The 
habttations of the natives are huts made of cane, wattled around slender 
uprights and plastered, many of them inside and out, with mortar. 
Those of the poorer classes are plastered with mud. The huts are 
usually in the form of a parallelogram, from 16 to 20 feet long, by 12 
to 14 wide, and the walls from five to six feet high. The roofs are 



6 



H. Doc. 1. 



conical, formed of light poles meeting in the centre, and thatched with 
the long grass of the country. 

The huts are not built in regular rows, each one fronting on the street, 
one for each family ; but are many of them in enclosures of wicker work, 
containing two or three or more huts, according to the number of wives 
of the proprietor. These huts very much attracted my attention, and I 
visited several of them, each usually containing one or two beds made 
of mats, spread on fixtures to the wall, a few chairs, and a table, on 
which was exhibited the household crockery. Excepting that they are 
better finished, these huts are, I am told, fair specimens of those in the 
neighboring country; bat the bed-fixtures, the chairs, the tables, and the 
crockery, are the results of close contact with civilization. The native 
inhabitants of the town are nearly all Mohammedans — some few are 
Pagans; but, so far as I could learn, there was not an adult Christian 
among them. Nearly all wear gree-grees or charms, consisting of a 
bit of camwood, a tooth of some wild animal, or a sentence from the 
Koran, cased in skin. Their dress is flowing and very graceful, con- 
sisting, with some slight variet}^ of a white cloth WTapped around the 
loins and extending to the knees, and another with an aperture for 
the head, resting upon the shoulders, like the bernoos of the Syrian 
horseman. 

The Jaloff is the tallest race of men I have ever seen, and forcibly 
reminded me of the fabulous accounts of the Patagonians. They in- 
habit the vast district extending along the coast from the Gambia to the 
Senegal. Their frames are rather slight than muscular : they are coal- 
black in their complexions, and have the short, crisped hair peculiar to 
the negro race ; but have not the thick lips, flat nose, and low, rece- 
ding forehead which, in our ideas, are associated with the features of 
the African. On the contrary, with the Caucasian, they have promi- 
nent noses, and their foreheads are high but narrowing at the temples. 
Each one carries himself as stately as if he were a monarch — the wo- 
men as much so as the men, and with the same proportion as elsewhere, 
in the respective size of the sexes. I am not alone in the opinion that 
the females are, on an average, as tall as men are with us. It is a 
very interesting race. The Europeans here represent them as easily 
managed by gentle means, but exceedingly dangerous when provoked, 
and as being very expert in the use of fire-arms. In point of stature 
they correspond with the Berri, a tall race of men towards the other 
side of the continent. The Jaloffs are high-toned and courteous ; and, 
in contradistinction to the other tribes, are called by foreigners the 
gentlemen of Africa." 

The Mandingoes are from the banks of the Gambia, from Handing 
down to the coast. It is a numerous and powerful race, with more of 
the characteristic features of the negro than the Jaloffs. They are re- 
presented as lively in their dispositions, prone to traffic, and with some 
taste for literature — a literature confined to the Koran. It is said they 
read no other book, and are taught no other lessons in their schools l^ut 
an unmeaning repetition of its laws and precepts. I question the cor- 
rectness of the assertion. The songs of the Jelli, or singing men, would 
bespeak a higher intellectual cultivation. Mr. Laing visited in 1822 
the walled town of Kakundi, in the country of Melicouri, and was there 



H. Doc. 1. 



7 



introduced to King Yaradee, one of the chiefs of Sulima. On that oc- 
casion was recited the following song, which is almost as poetic and 
far more genuine than the fabled poems of Ossian. It commemorates an 
advantage gained by Yaradee over the Foulahs, at the time when ten 
thousand of them, headed by Ba Dembah, laid siege to Falata: 

"Shake off that drowsiness, brave Yaradee, thou lion of war! 
Hang thy sword to thy side, and be thyself! Dost thou not behold the 
army of the Foulahs? Observe their lines of muskets and spears, 
vying in brightness with the rays of the departing sun! They are 
strong and powerful ; yea, they are men ! and they have sworn on the 
Al Koran that they wiU destroy the capital of the Sulima nation. So, 
shake off that drowsiness, brave Yaradee, thou lion of war ! The 
brave Talaheer, thy sire, held the Foulahs in contempt. Fear was a 
stranger to his bosom! He set the firebrand to Timbo, that nest of the 
Islamites ; and, though worsted at Herico, he scorned to quit the field, 
but fell like a hero, cheering his war-men. If thou art worthy to be 
called the son of Talaheer, shake off that drowsiness, brave Yaradee, 
thou lion of war ! 

Brave Yaradee stirred. He shook his garments of war, as the 
soaring eagle ruffles his pinions. Ten times he addressed his gree- 
grees, and swore to them that he would either return in triumph to 
the sound of the war-drum, or that the cries of the Jelli should bewail 
his fall. The war-men shouted with joy. 

" Behold ! he shakes from him that drowsiness, the lion of war ! he 
hangs his sword by his side, and is now himself! 

" Follow me to the field ! exclaimed the heroic Yaradee ! Fear 
nothing ! for, let the spear be sharp, or the ball be swift, faith in your 
gree-grees will preserve you from danger. Follow me to the field ; 
for I am roused, and have shook off" that drowsiness. I am brave Yar- 
adee, the lion of war ! I have hung my sword by my side, and am 
myself. I have shook off* that drowsiness. The w^ar-drum sounds, and 
the sweet notes of the balla encourage warriors to deeds of arms. The 
valiant Yaradee mounts his steed ! His headmen follow ! The north- 
ern gate of Falaba is thrown open, and they rush from it with the 
swiftness of leopards. Yaradee is a host in himself ! Observe how he 
wields his sword ! They fall before him ! They stagger ! They reel ! 
Foulah men ! you will long remember this day ! for Yaradee has shook 
off* his drowsiness, the lion of war ! He has hung his sword by his 
side, and is himself" 

B}^ way of contrast of the turn of thought and mode of expression, 
I give the account of a Bornou man, related by himself: 

" My years were eighteen. There was war. At that time my 
mother died. My father died. I buried them. I had done. The 
Foulahs caught me. They sold me. The Housa people bought us. 
They brought us to Tomba. We got up. We came to the Popo coun- 
try. The Popoes took us. To a white man they sold us. The white 
man took us. We had no shirts. We had no trousers. We were 
naked. Into the midst of the water — into the midst of a ship they put 
us. Thirst killed somebody. Hunger killed somebody. By night we 
prayed. At sun-time we prayed. God heard us. The English are 
good. God sent them. They came. They took us. Our hunger died. 



8 



H. Doc. 1. 



Our thirst died. Our chains went off from our feet. Shirts they gave 
us. Trousers they gave us. Hats they gave us. Every one was glad. 
We all praised the English. Whoever displeases the English, into hell 
let him go." 

The Mandingoes manufacture cotton cloths, and dye them with indigo 
and other vegetable dyes in colors so fixed as to resist, it is said, the 
action of acids, and hght — a quality surpassing that of any other known 
dye-stuff in the world. The Mandingo indigo-plant, as it is here called, 
has a deep-green leaf, with a number of spear-shaped leaflets along 
the sides of a common leaf-stalk, opposite to each other and abruptly 
winged, and may therefore be classed among compound leaves. From 
thirty leaves of this plant, nearly an ounce of pure indigo has been ob- 
tained. The Mandingoes are skilled also in the tanning of hides, and 
the preparation of leather; and the specimens which I saw of their 
bridles, whips, pouches, sword and dagger sheaths, and powder-horns, 
far surpass all I had conceived of native manufacture. 

The Foulahs or Fellatas are rigid Mohammedans, and are very dis- 
tinct from the Jaloffs and Mandingoes. They sustain the remark that 
the inhabitants of an inland country are of lighter complexion than 
those who reside on the seacoast in the same parallel of latitude. 
They are lighter-colored, their noses are more prominent, and their 
general features partake more of the Nubian than of an African tribe 
bordering on the great desert. 

There is an ancient tradition cherished by them of their being de- 
scendants of a white race, and they have often assigned it as a reason 
why they should have no interests conflicting with those whose origin 
they regard as the same with their own. Those seen at Bathurst are 
from the countries north and south of the Gambia, above McCarthy's 
island. Although they have made a few settlements on the southern 
bank, they do not, in general, evince a taste for agricultural pursuits. 
They are warhke shepherds, and are overrunning Western and Central 
Africa with as much zeal, and with equal success, as the Saracens did 
the northern shore of the continent in the seventh century. They are 
ever at war, and warring but to conquer ; with the sword and the 
Koran they exterminate paganism wherever they appear. 

At the close of the last century there was not a Mohammedan south 
of Cape Verde or west of Footah Torra. Now, of the two millions of 
inhabitants occupying that country, two-thirds are Mohammedans. At 
present, a religious war is raging within two miles of Bathurst ; and 
the English officer, in his evening ride, can hear the report of fire-arms 
and the uproar of battle. Not long since the combatants approached 
so near that their bullets struck the barrack-wall and the houses and 
fences of European residents. I have mentioned a French squadron 
fitting out in Goree for the purpose of attacking a tribe lower down the 
coast. The circumstance was related in the presence of the governor 
here ; and an officer of the garrison, who had just arrived upon the 
station, remarked, that in his opinion one small steamer and a hundred 
men would be sufficient for the purpose. " Far from it," replied the 
governor; " and you will think so, too, when you have been longer in 
Africa. There are, at this moment," he added, "people within fifteen 
miles of us whom we dare not attack." 



H. Doc. 1. 



9 



The Foulahs have warred against the Taurlyacks in the north, and 
the negroes of Bambara in the south. With the JalofFs and Mandin- 
goes, they occupy much of the western coast ; and in the interior of 
the continent have subjugated Yoruba, Nyfee, and Housa. They now 
extend from the Atlantic to the Niger, and from the Senegal to within 
a few days' march of the Gulf of Guinea ; and within the present 
century have founded Soccatoo, the capital of their empire. Wherever 
they have settled, pagan idolatry is said to have disappeared, and 
human sacrifices are abolished. In one respect their success will check 
the traffic in slaves, and thus prove beneficial to humanity. By their 
civil code, derived from the Koran, it is forbidden to enslave any one 
born of free parents, and professing the rehgion of Mohammed ; and 
the slave of a kafir, by embracing Islamism, becomes, ipso facto, free. 

By the abohtion of human sacrifices, and the substitution of the 
worship of the true Gcd for that of senseless idols, the Foulahs are 
unquestionably ministers of good to Africa ; but it may be doubted 
whether, under the Mohammedan rule, that country will present less 
difficulties than at present to the advancement of Christianity within 
it. The theology of Islamism is unexceptionable. " Obedience leads 
the way to heaven ; fasting and self-denial give it rapid progress ; 
and alms-deeds open the door." 

But, unhappily, all kafirs — a term embracing Christians and in- 
fidels — are excluded from their charit}^ Intolerant in their bigotry, 
the very exercise of w^hat they believe to be virtues begets a spirit 
of self-righteousness, which may prove the greatest obstacle to their 
conversion. 

The commerce of the Gambia, already great, is rapidly increasing. 
Bathurst is the port of entry for all the settlements on the river, ex- 
cept the French colony of Albreda. There are no discriminating 
tonnage duties; and, except sixpence per gallon on wines and spirits, 
and one farthing per pound on tobacco, the import duty on all goods, 
British and foreign, is four per cent. A comparison of the official 
returns of 1840 and that of 1851 (the last rendered) will convey an 
accurate idea of the advance of commerce. 

In 1840 the foreign tonnage entered was 6,922 tons, and that of 
1851 was 21,596 tons; while the diflTerence between the aggregate 
imports and exports was $325,000. This difference is annually in- 
creasing, and the exports of 1851 exceeded those of the preceding 
year $120,000. In 1835 there were but 47 tons of ground-nuts 
raised on the Gambia. In 1845 the trade in that article commenced, 
and it was exported to the amount of $995. In 1851, including 1,000 
tons from Albreda, there were upwards of 12,000 tons exported, 
amounting to $720,000, one-fifteenth of which found its way to the 
United States, and about the same proportion to Great Britain. Nearly 
five-sixths of the whole amount is exported to France, where an oil is 
expressed from it, which is used for the table and for supplying lamps. 
It is much esteemed, and is said n^ver to become rancid. 

It will be perceived that extra duties are levied on the principal ar- 
ticles imported from the United States. But it is not fair to infer that 
they are imposed in a spirit of illiberahty. No man, who is a friend to 



10 



H. Doc. 1. 



his race, would regret, if the tax on New England rum and all intoxica- 
ting drinks amounted, everywhere, to a total prohibition. As lor 
tobacco, the very light duty imposed aids the revenue, while it does 
not lessen the importation ; for it is an indispensable article in the Afri- 
can trade ; and whatever he sells, the native requires a part of the pay- 
ment to be made in tobacco. Of this staple of our country, we last 
year imported into the Gambia one and a half million pounds. Our 
other imports for the same period included one thousand barrels of 
flour and two hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth of cotton goods, 
besides salt provisions, hams, potatoes, furniture, shoes, hats, &;c., to 
a large amount. Hides form a considerable portion of the exports, 
and are sent almost exclusively to our country ; and at least one-fourth 
of the imports are from the United States, exclusive of the tobacco 
brought in vessels of other nations. 

Leaving the Gambia, we stretched a little from the land, to pass 
outside the Isles de Los, and steered our course for Sierra Leone. 
The coast is low and thickly wooded, with occasional clumps of trees 
showing above the surface. These clumps, alone visible at times 
above the misty exhalations of the land, like the hillocks of Cape Verde, 
resemble islands in the distance. With these interruptions, the scene 
inland was as level and monotonous as that to seaward. On the one 
hand an unbroken mass of foliage, and on the other a slumbering sea, 
with a mist brooding over it, which narrowed the limits of the horizon. 

Our passage was a long and tedious one, and the weather was most 
relaxing. By day we had light and fitful airs, which scarce agitated 
the hazy atmosphere through which the rays of the sun penetrated with 
scorching heat, while the eye shrunk in pain from the glare of light. 
During the night calms mostly prevailed, but the heated air kept evap- 
oration suspended, except when the wind shifted to the north, and 
then the dew was copious. Notwithstanding the heat was most trying 
to the system, the average temperature was only 83°. Our progress 
was as much accelerated by a southerly current as by wind and can- 
vass. In our course we passed the mouths of the Rio Grande, the 
Nunez, and the Pongo. The former is more a deep bay, with numer- 
ous islands, than an estuary ; the two latter are considerable rivers, 
which flow from the interior in many intricate channels, connecting 
with each other, which, while they increase the difficulties of naviga- 
tion to vessels of burden, extend to the inhabitants great facilities of 
intercommunication. 

A vessel drawing twelve feet water can ascend the Nunez sixty 
miles to Kakundy. The town of Tallabuncia, about four miles from 
its mouth, is described as being situated in a plain, and beautifully 
shaded with lofty palm-trees, and a great profusion of the lime, the 
orange, the plantain, and the banana. The men inhabiting it are strong 
and well formed, but of a savage appearance, having their breasts and 
arms tattooed, and are almost destitute of clothing. Large holes are 
pierced through their ears, in which are inserted bits of coarse grass. 
The appearance of the women is still less attractive. At the com- 
mencement of the rains the locust tree on the Nunez ripens its fruit, 
which hangs in clusters from its branches, and furnishes a great part 
of the food of the natives at that season. 



H. Doc. 1. 



11 



The coast from the Nunez nearly to Sierra Leone was, until the 
early part of this century, inhabited by the Soosoos, who drove from it 
the aboriginal tribe, only leaving them a few settlements along the 
shore and on the island of Tamara, the largest of the Isles de Los. 

The Soosoos are patriotic and brave, determined enemies of Moham- 
medanism, and subject to no superstition, which would not readily 3deld 
to the light of Christianity. Their notions of the Deity are extremely 
vague, and it can scarcely be said that they have any rehgion. They 
have some obscure idea of an omnipotent power, and pay respect and 
homage to departed souls — honoring, with solemn rites and offerings, 
the manes of their ancestors. They are accustomed to visit certain 
spots consecrated to the dead, and deposite some portion of their food 
and call over the names of their deceased friends. 

Hospitality is a virtue for which the Soosoos are distinguished ; and 
the stranger, it is said, never passes through one of their villages with- 
out being invited to take rest or refreshment. Should the reigning 
king, in the opinion of a majority of the chiefs, prove too weak for his 
trust, or should age unfit him for the discharge of his duties, by an act 
of peculiar significance he is called upon to retire. A messenger pre- 
sents to him a silver basin containing a piece of white paper. If the 
king places his royal turban in the basin, he may descend, without dis- 
turbance or danger, to the walks of common life, and there enjoy the 
respect and affection of his countrymen ; but should he refuse to com- 
ply with this peaceful request, he retains his turban and manifests his 
resolution to defend it, by sending back in its stead a piece of scarlet 
cloth, with powder and ball. This is the signal for civil war. 

The Soosoos have been dispossessed of a great portion of their ter- 
ritory by the Mandingoes, who occupy the country between the recent 
conquests of the Foulahs and the sea. 

Somewhere in that territory are the Loubies — supposed to be de- 
scendants of the Lencothiopes of Ptolomy and Pliny. They are repre- 
sented as a degenerate race — poor and squalid in appearance — who 
neither cultivate the soil nor foUow pastoral pursuits, but manufacture 
wooden bowls and other trifles, and carry on a petty traffic with the 
Mandingoes. 

The language of the Bulloms and that of the Timmanees, who oc- 
cupy the shores of the river Sierra Leone, are said to be harmonious to 
the ear, but surpassed in sweetness by the dialect of the Soosoos. The 
Mandingo language is more difficult than either to acquire ; and, in con- 
sequence of abounding in gutturals, is harsher in pronunciation. 

In consequence of light winds and calms we had a long passage to 
Sierra Leone. The river of Sierra Leone discovered by Pietro de 
Cintra, in 1462, and formerly called the Mitomba, is formed by the 
junction of four streams — the Bunce, Rokelle, Porto Lago, and Ma- 
hara — and falls into the sea in north latitude S° 30', and west lon- 
gitude 13^ 43'. The name "Sierra Leone" was given to the mount- 
ain range south of the river from the fancy that the loud reverberation 
of thunder in the valleys resembled the roaring of lions. 

The peninsula, which breaks down suddenly at the river's mouth, is 
very lofty compared with the op|josite shore, and stretches inland to 
the southeast in a range which soon reaches an elevation of more than 



12 



H. Doc. 1. 



2,000 feet. The range is not uniform ; but presents on the north side 
detached hills, with valleys between, that increase in width as they de- 
scend and sweep down towards the river ; before reaching which they 
unite in a rolling and luxuriant plain, varying only in the character of 
their foliage. The valleys and hill-tops were clothed with luxuriant 
verdure when we saw them. As viewed from the sea, the scene was pic- 
turesque and imposing : on one side a low shore, stretching away to 
the north, which looked dark in its dull uniformity of green ; on the 
other the lofty mountain range, showing above the mist which rolled 
up from the valleys and gathered around its waist. The scenery is 
that of paradise ; but beneath its beauty, like the serpent concealed 
amid flowers and foliage, lurks the deadly venom which is developed in 
the rainy season, when its earliest and its surest victim is the white man. 

Now, it is comparatively healthy ; and the Europeans of the place, as 
w^ell as those of Bathurst, forget the alarms and fears of the past in the 
enjoyments of the present. The river Sierra Leone is, like the Gambia, 
divided into two channels ; but the southern and principal one is nar- 
row, owing to an extensive shoal along the northern shore. 

In approaching the harbor the scenery softens into the beautiful. 
The breeze which daily sets in to temper the heat of the sun, wafts 
masses of clouds from seaward ; which, in passing over, cast their 
shadows upon the swelling hills and outstretching valleys. 

At home, we sometimes behold the foliage of the trees wearing rich 
autumnal tints, while the grass beneath is green ; but here it is reversed: 
the grass is embrowned by the want of moisture at this season ; while 
the trees, their roots striking deeper into the soil, retain their tropical 
verdure. And this tropical character is enhanced by the frequent palm- 
tree — the ancient and acknowledged symbol of fertility. 

Between the cape and the anchorage off the town, there are many 
ferruginous rocks scattered along the shore : but the rugged appearance 
is relieved by two placid little bays, into which empty some small 
streams, fringed with shrubbery ; among which we could not detect 
the fever-engendering mangrove. The ferruginous soil, the rounded 
summits of the mountain range, and the small pieces of lava brought 
up by the lead in sounding near the Banana islands, which lie abreast 
of it, all indicate a volcanic origin. 

Here and there, on the hill-sides and throughout the rolHng plain, are 
cultivated spots, with pretty cottages embowered in foliage, which be- 
come more and more frequent in approaching the town. Freetown is 
built on the northern declivity of the mountain, which towers 2,600 
feet behind it — a beautihil, but most insalubrious position ; for the high 
lands exclude the sea-breeze Irom the quarter whence it blows in the 
sickly season, and from the swampy shore on the other side is borne, 
by the land-breeze, the miasmata which is so deadly to the white man. 
One can scarcely realize that death can be shrouded in so much 
beauty. 

The soil in and around the town is formed of a brittle rock, consist- 
ing of sandstone and a combination of iron with oxygen, having a strong 
magnetic quality. 

In the centre of the town are the stores and dwellings of the Euro- 
pean residents and principal native merchants, flanked on one side 



H. Doc. 1. 



13 



by Krootown, and on the other by populous villages of liberated 
Africans. 

The whole is well laid out, and the principal streets broad and rect- 
angular. The houses in the centre town have generally a superstructure 
of frame, on a basement of stone. They are mostly surrounded by 
covered galleries, having trellis-work in front ; and are detached from 
each other, with many trees around them. The dwellings of the Kroo- 
men, who resort here in great numbers for employment, and those of 
the liberated Africans, are similar to the huts at Bathurst in their con- 
struction ; but, unlike them, they are built in lines with the streets, 
and not in detached courts. 

Some of the Africans reside in the centre town in well-finished 
houses, and own considerable property. One of the most extensive 
merchants of the place is a native of the interior. Many of the natives 
keep small retail shops ; but some of their stores are as attractive as 
those of Europeans ; and those who keep them import their goods firom 
England, and export, in return, large cargoes of timber. The blacks 
are as eligible as whites to all civil and municipal offices — mayor, 
alderman, sheriff, &c. Some years ago, the governor of the colony 
was a colored man ; and a very intelligent one, with whom I became 
acquainted, held the situation of colonial chaplain. 

Many of the negroes residing in the place are well clothed, present- 
ing quite a contrast to some of the natives of the surrounding country, 
each with a single garment girt about his loins. The Mandingoes, 
however, and the natives from Matakong, with the products of their 
manufactui'ing skill, twisted and stamped gold rings, and pouches, 
bridles, and sword-cases of leather, look well in their long white or 
blue garments, thrown over the head and resting upon the shoulders. 

The public buildings in the centre town are the church, the jail, the 
custom-house, and the commissariat, built of the ironstone of the coun- 
try, none of them imposing in appearance. Half-way up the elevation, 
immediately back of the town, is the governor's house, occupying the 
site of a fort, and less imposing even than the public buildings below it. 

A short distance above and beyond the governor's is the hospital, a 
plain building, in a bad position; and crowning all are Tov/er Hill 
barracks, composed of three massive buildings, capable of accommo- 
dating 2,000 men. At present there are but 200 troops in the garrison, 
composed, as at the Gambia, of English officers and black soldiers. 

The view from the balcony of the officers' quarters is commanding 
and superb. The town is spread out in front and on each side. The 
native huts stretch far up the plain beyond the barracks, and look beau- 
tiful in their long lines ot streets, so perfectly shaded by orange, 
banana, and pawpaw trees, that, in places, the walls of huts are alone 
visible ; the brown roofs being concealed by the lofty branches. But 
there is a drawback to the view on the eastern side— the large and 
well-filled grave-yard at the head of the valley. In 1833, the popula- 
tion of Freetown was 7,000 : it is now 18,000 ; and that of the whole 
colony was, in 1851, 44,500. 

The population is a very mixed one, consisting of Europeans, Nova- 
Scotians, liberated Africans and native Creoles, West Indians, Ameri- 
cans, (colored,) Kroomen, and natives of the district. The liberated 



14 



H. Doc. 1. 



Africans and native Creoles comprise ten-elevenths of the whole num- 
ber. The creeds are as various as the races : commencing with the 
largest number professing them, they are Wesley an Methodists, Epis- 
copalians, Pagans, African Methodists, (seceders from the Wesleyan,) 
Lady Huntington's connexion, Mohammedans, Baptists, Catholics, 
Presbyterians, and Jews. 

The costumes of the inhabitants are as various as their creeds and 
complexions ; the latter ranging from the ruddy cheek of Caledonia to 
the sable brown of Egypt ; the former, from the superfluous garments 
of civilization to the 'puris naturalihus of barbarism. Generally, the adults 
are partly clad — the women more so than the men, although some of 
them have only a cloth around their loins. The young of both sexes 
under twelve years of age generally go naked ; but some have adopted 
the European dress. 

As a love of ornament is a characteristic of the African race, there 
is reason to hope that, as they lose their reverence for gree-grees, they 
will appropriate the money heretofore expended for them to 'the pur- 
chase of petticoats and trousers. In such a heterogeneous society, how- 
ever, the reformation cannot be a rapid one. So long as there were 
frequent accessions to the population from the slave-ships captured by 
English cruisers, there was but little progress made in the introduction 
of the manners and customs of the whites. Now, however, that the 
horrible slave trade is, or seems to be, extirpated from these latitudes, 
the present population will, day by day, yield their prejudices and pro- 
pensities to the influences of Christianity and civilization ; but, for the 
thorough reformation we must rely upon the missionary and the school- 
master acting upon the rising generation. Daily, hourly, that influence 
is now being exercised by humble but heroic men ; of whom, without 
exaggeration, it may be said that they deliberately perish, in order that 
others may live. 

There seems to be much activity evinced in clearing the land of 
its dense undergrowth in the vicinity of the settlements ; thus contribu- 
ting, at the same time, to beautify the face of the country and promote 
the health of its inhabitants. The whole colony is intersected by ex- 
cellent roads, forming long, narrow vistas, overshadowed and beauti- 
fied by the palm and the banana — with hedges of the coffee plant, the 
leaves of the latter a rich and vivid green. These roads measure 
seventy miles in length, and are continually repaired by the liberated 
Africans. 

The Bullom tribe occupy the northern shore of the river, and give 
their name to the district they inhabit. The Timmanees were the origi- 
nal inhabitants of the peninsula of Sierra Leone, and they still reside 
in and around it. They are described as indolent and licentious. There 
is a tradition that they were preceded by the Aiguas, who worshipped 
the thunder-bolt. During thunder-storms they are represented as com- 
ing forth from their huts, and by shouts and songs welcoming their deity. 
On one occasion a pregnant woman was killed by lightning ; and far 
and near the worshippers came in, exulting that with one bolt two 
were killed. 

It is a custom among the Timmanees, as also of many other tribes of 
Western Africa, to throw a small portion of whatever they eat or drink 



H. Doc. 1. 



15 



upon the ground, as an offering to the dead. The bodies of then* kings 
are deposited in charnel-houses, which are never opened ; but there are 
small apertures through which cooked provisions and palm wine are in- 
troduced, the Timmanees believing that they are consumed by the dead. 
They have houses near their towns, in which are. images, skulls, 
shells, &c., in which their divinities are believed to reside. 

I first saw here the cola or gorra-nut, so frequently mentioned by 
Park, Clapperton, and the Landers. It is the seed of the Slerculia acu- 
minata, resembling the horse-chestnut in appearance and growing in 
pods, four or five together. It is exceedingly bitter, but is considered 
an excellent tonic by the natives. It has an unquestionable peculiarity. 
After chewing one, tepid and slightly brackish water tastes sweet and 
refreshing. The locust tree of this country is very beautiful — covered 
when in blossom with vermillion-colored flowers, which are followed 
by pods containing a farinaceous substance, of which the natives are 
very fond. In the yard of one of the colonists I saw a bread-fruit 
tree, large and umbrageous, but without fruit, it being too early in 
the season. The British government might have transplanted the bread- 
fruit tree from this vicinity, instead of sending to the South Pacific for 
it. Limes, oranges, plantains and bananas, with other tropical fruits, are 
abundant in the market. Of fish there was no scarcity ; and there seemed 
a sufficiency of indifferent beef and mutton to supply the limited de- 
mand. There was no great variety of vegetables, the cassada, yams, 
and sweet potatoes being the principal ; and poultry was rarely seen. 

The movement which led to the first settlement of Sierra Leone ori- 
ginated with the Society of Friends, and the first colonists consisted 
mostly of London prostitutes and refugee slaves from the United States. 
The object was humane, but the means adopted most injudicious. For- 
tunately for the credit of the Christian name in a heathen land, nearly 
one-half died or fled from the colony in a few months ; and in less 
than a year an African chief destroyed the settlement, and the whole 
were dispersed. Another colony was sent out and the town was rebuilt, 
but soon after destroyed by the French. A third time settled, it has, 
with occasional trying vicissitudes, gone on increasing, until it has be- 
come an important colony and ihe principal of the English settlements 
in West Africa. It was formerly under the charge of the African as- 
sociation, during which it suffered much from mal-administration of 
its affairs ; but since the government has assumed the control and ex- 
erted itself strenuously and successfully in suppressing the slave trade, 
there is said to be a decided improvement in the character and habits 
of the blacks. Many of them are well clothed, and all of them are 
well behaved ; perfect order throughout the town is preserved by police- 
men appointed from among them, each one distinguished by his badge 
of authority. I heard no quarrelling, and among them saw no intem- 
perance. 

The trade of Sierra Leone, Uke that of the Gambia, is fast increas- 
ing. From the official return to the British Parhament, the number 
of vessels reported inwards at the customs of this port for J 851 was 
nearly double that of the preceding year ; and the amount of tonnage 
entered shows an increase of -50 per cent The imports from the 
United States amounted, in 1851, to $88,000 ; in 1852, to $98,000. 



16 



H. Doc. 1. 



But, in the words of the "official returns," "a very large proportion 
of the exports are not reported ; it being a well-known fact that very 
many vessels load annually in the neighboring rivers with produce, for 
various parts of the world, and on account of the resident merchants of 
the colony, but which are, nevertheless, not cleared outwards at the 
custom-house ; and, consequently, no returns of their cargoes can be in- 
cluded in the return of exports, which only shows the exports of those 
vessels cleared by the customs." 



The exports for 1852 were : 

800,000 bushels ground-nuts, valued at $440,000 

(i-Q- to France and to to the United States.) 

400,000 feet timber— to England ; valued at 500,000 

500,000 hides— to the United States ; at $1 each 500,000 

300,000 gallons palm oil, at 33J cents 100,000 

a to the United States and | to England.) 

200 tons pepper, valued at 400,000 

to the United States and § to England.) 

600 tons ginger, valued at 600,000 

to the United States and | to England.) 

Beeswax not rendered — estimated at 90,000 



Total 2,630,000 



A letter received from Sierra Leone since my return here, reports a 
large proportionate increase for the first quarter of the present year ; 
but as it is not official, I withhold it. It will be seen that the reported 
exports very much exceed the imports ; and the inference is, that all of 
the latter, as well as the former, are not entered at the custom-house, 
but distributed in the neighboring rivers. 

Leaving Sierra Leone for Monrovia, with a fair wind, we passed 
Sherbro island and the Shebar and GalHnas rivers, and on the second 
day made Cape Mount. 

The country between Sierra Leone and the Sherbro is covered with 
timber, much of which is annually exported. With the exception ol about 
ten miles along the coast, the Shebar is now the northern boundary of the 
republic of Liberia. This river is properly an estuary of several rivers; 
and on the island between it and the sea, the first attempt was made 
to settle a colony of colored people from the United Sta tes. The Boom 
Kittam river, up which we have a considerable trade, flows in here 
from the southeast. A short distance up the stream is the Mendi mis- 
sion, established by our countrymen. They complain that they have 
frequently been much incommoded, and that once or twice their prop- 
erty and their lives were endangered by the cupidity of the native chiefs. 
They at one time considered that they owed their preservation to the 
timely interference of the commander of an English ship-of-war. This 
is not the only instance which has come to my knowledge of the assist- 
ance rendered by officers of the royal navy to our citizens trading to or 
residing in Africa. 

In an isolated position, like that on the Boom Kittam, it seems to me 
that one of our cruisers should occasionally visit it ; for which purpose, 



H. Doc. 1. 



17 



as for many others connected with the suppression of the slave trade 
and the protection of American hves and property, one or two steamers, 
of Hght draught of water, should be attached to our squadron on the coast. 

The Mohammedan reUgion was introduced into this district of coun- 
try in the early part of this century, by missionaries from Coroango and 
Toubah. 

De Cintra, sailing down the coast from Sierra Leone, discovered the 
river Gallinas, to which he gave the name of Rio del Fumi, because he 
saw nothing but smoke along the shore. Until recently the mouth of 
this river was the most notorious slave mart on the western coast. The 
factories were destroyed in 1849 by Commander Denham, R. N. 

Through the joint Hberality of two philanthropists — an Englishman 
and a citizen of the United States — the territory was subsequently pur- 
chased from the neighboring kings and annexed to the republic of Li- 
beria ; and in May, 1852, the Cassa territory, which adjoins Gallinas 
on the north, was also purchased, making the Shebar the northern 
boundary of the republic. 

From Gallinas to Cape Mount, along the coast, and extending about 
thirty miles inland, is the territory occupied by the Veys, a warlike 
tribe, numbering from ten to twelve thousand, heretofore actively en- 
gaged in the slave trade. They are said to be separatists from the 
Mandingoes ; and some of them are Mohammedans, and possess a de- 
gree of intelligence, and are more highly civilized than the Deys and 
other tribes to leeward. 

Their language has been reduced to writing by syllabic characters, 
and has a strong affinity to that of the Deys. 

Sharks hover about the mouths of rivers on the coast ; and, during 
the activity of the slave trade, were particularly numerous at Gallinas 
bar, on the watch for the frequent upsetting of the canoes which trans- 
ported slaves from the shore to the vessels in the offing. In 1849, a 
captain of a vessel lying off GaUinas, who had visited the shore, for a 
long time feared to launch his boat to return on board, in consequence 
of the great number of sharks he saw swimming about. When he had 
embarked, they pursued him so closely that he could strike them with 
his oar. 

As an instance of the rapacity of the shark, and the cruelty of one 
of our countrymen, Dr. Savage relates, that in 1837 a native boy be- 
longing to Tabou, about forty miles to leeward of Cape Palmas, was 
taken on board of an American brig, to act the part of cabin-boy. 
Having offended the mate on one occasion, he received a severe chas- 
tisement, and rushed down into the cabin for protection from the cap- 
tain, who was busily engaged in writing; but the latter, provoked at 
such an abrupt intrusion, began also to beat him. The poor boy now 
retreated to the deck, pursued by the captain, and encountering the 
mate in a threatening attitude, he ran towards the bow of the ship. 
The captain followed him, pouring forth his oaths and imprecations. 
The httle fligitive, finding no way of escape, sprang upon the bowsprit 
and leaped into the sea. Here, hanging to the cable, without daring 
to ascend, he began to entreat the compassion of his Christian employer, 
who stood leaning over the bow, shaking his fist and threatening ven- 
geance on his head if he attempted to come on board again. It can 
2 



18 



H. Doc. 1. 



hardly be supposed that the captain intended to prevent his final ascent; 
but he did prevent it in the end. For while the boy was pleading for 
his mercy, two sharks were seen to approach, and, each grasping at a 
leg, rent his body asunder. The next moment the captain saw only 
the bloody wave swashing against the bow of his ship. 

Of the horrors of the slave trade, few have a distinct conception. 
A single instance, which occurred in this locality, will give an idea of 
the reckless barbarity which attends it. Prior to recent treaties, En- 
glish cruisers could not capture vessels of other European nations along 
the coast, (and cannot now American,) unless there were actually 
slaves on board. In 1830 his Britanic Majesty's ship "Medina" gave 
chase to a suspicious sail hovering off the mouth of this river. On 
board of the latter was a female slave, whose presence, as much as 
that of hundreds, would insure the capture and condemnation of the 
vessel. As the most effectual means of removing the poor wretch 
from sight — for even her dead body would bear damning testimony — 
she was lashed to the anchor, and with it cast overboard. The search 
was thus baffled, and the slaver allowed to pass unmolested. 

Cape Mount, in latitude 6^ 44' N., is a bold and sudden elevation, 
densely wooded to the summit, which is 1,060 feet above the level of the 
sea ; and it towers over the surrounding country, except in the south- 
east direction, where a chain of hills stretch inland until they are lost 
in the distance. 

Cape Mount, as well as the Gallinas and Sierra Leone to the north, 
and Cape Mesurado to the south, were discovered by the same Portu- 
guese navigator, who saw here, as Hanno and his Carthaginians had 
seen before, many fires on shore, made by the natives, some of whom 
came off to the ship in canoes, two or three in each. They were all 
naked, and armed with wooden darts and small knives, bows, and 
shields. They had rings in their ears ; and, according to the narrative 
of Cada Mosta, in their nostrils also, and wore the teeth of slaughtered 
enemies suspended from their necks, as trophies. 

The eastern base of Cape Mount is washed by Fisherman's lake, ten 
or twelve miles long, formed by the outspreading of the irregular and 
sluggish river Pissou, which flows down from the interior, and only 
finds an outlet when its rising waters overflow a depression in the bar- 
rier of sand thrown up by the sea. The shores of the lake, and the 
banks of the river, are covered with luxuriant vegetation, except here 
and there a clearing occupied by villages and rice-fields. The huts re- 
semble so many bee-hives on a gigantic scale. 

It was here that Pedro Blanco had his extensive slave factories. 
Besides other goods, he imported, in 1841, 1,800 hogsheads of tobacc©, 
and annually shipped from six to eight thousand slaves ; and considered 
it a good speculation, if one out of four of his vessels reached its des- 
tination unmolested. 

Twenty miles from Cape Mount is Half-cape Mount river, which, in 
part, belies its name ; for it is a fine river, flowing through a level 
country, uninterrupted, as far as the eye can see, by the slightest ele- 
vation. 

From Cape Mount to Cape Mesurado is the Dey country, cut up in 
small districts, held by petty kings, who, while outwardly acknowledg- 



H. Doc. 1. 



19 



ing the jurisdiction of the republic, are continually holding palavers ; 
i. e., quarrelling among themselves. The word "palaver," with a 
great many phases to its meaning, generally implies a discussion, to 
decide upon a right assumed, or a right disputed ; or indemnity for a 
WTong; or the enforcement of a contract. In fact, it is the court of 
law of the tribes, and suits are brought before it. 

The Deys, more tractable but not more trustworthy than the Veys, 
are somewhat given to agriculture, and possess considerable mechanical 
skill in the weaving and dyeing of cotton cloths, and the manufacture 
of household articles and instruments of warfare. They are considered 
less numerous than the Veys, and are a more indolent and inoffensive 
race, numbering from 6,000 to 8,000. The dialect of these two tribes 
has some affinity, but differs from other languages along the coast. 
Although very imperfect, the missionaries have succeeded in reducing 
it to significant characters, and translating into it a compilation of the 
gospels. 

At day-light, on the 31st of January, we made Cape Mesurado, dimly 
visible through a thin white mist which shrouded the horizon. The mist, 
hanging over the lowlands, but not rising above the tops of the trees, 
gave to the scene very much the appearance of a general inundation. 
We soon after heard the splashing of paddles in the water, and in a 
few moments a number of canoes came swiftly forth from the obscurity, 
and revealed two or three natives nearly naked, sitting upright in each, 
and handhng their paddles with great dexterity. These canoes are dug 
out of the bombax ceiba, the pullam or wild cotton tree of the country, 
and being very light, narrow, and long, with a slight upward curve at 
each extremity, float buoyantly and gracefully upon the water. 

As we slowly sailed along, the mist in the meanwhile rising with 
the sun, the surrounding scenery, feature by feature, was unveiled, and 
by the time we cast our anchor in the bay the whole was distinctly 
revealed. 

Abreast of us was a lofty promontory ; a httle beyond, and partly 
hidden by it, was the town of Monrovia; and to the east and north a 
densely wooded country, its sandy shore interrupted only in two 
places, where the rivers Mesurado and St. Paul's find outlets to the 
sea — those outlets marked by the foam of breakers flashing in the 
sunhght. 

The pitch of Cape Mesurado is gently rounded; but its face is 
abrupt, and would present a rugged appearance, were it not covered 
with a mantle of the richest green 1 have ever looked upon, re- 
sembling, if anything, the hue of lichens and mosses in some seques- 
tered ravine, from the sides of which water imperceptibly trickles. 
Except a very narrow strip of beach, with a few outlying rocks' at the 
very water's edge, all is one mass of fohage — tangled vines and shrub- 
bery beneath, but above a dense growth of trees, becoming more and 
more lofty, until those on the summit rear their heads above and half 
conceal the light-house, an indifferent frame building-, stained and 
defaced by the weather; which, except in its greater height, recalls to 
mind one of those narrow and neglected tobacco-houses so often seen 
in our southern States. 

In the dense thicket which crowns the Cape was formerly a Fetish- 



20 



H. Doc. 1. 



house, where the natives worshipped some hideous idol; and on the 
naked rocks, near the extremity of the Cape, was found, in September, 
1823, the carcass of a boa constrictor. It was extended nearly at 
length, and measured thirty-two feet. Its size, near down to the tail, 
was almost uniform, and, in its then collapsed and shrivelled state, 
varied little from eight inches in diameter. Its color, when alive, 
seemed to have been dark brown, variegated with irregular patches of 
a darker hue. It had apparently perished from starvation. 

The anchorage is an open one ; but the winds rarely blow fresh upon 
the shore, and the only danger to shipping is a heavy sea which some- 
times comes tumbling in without the slightest premonition. The ridge 
of highland, the rounded extremity of which forms the Cape, trends 
inland, in a diagonal line from the coast; and on a depression of that 
ridge, about half a mile from the light-house, the principal part of the 
town is built. But many houses are scattered about on the inland 
slope, at the foot of which are several stone warehouses, facing the broad 
sheet of water formed by the junction of Stockton creek coming down 
from the north, and the river Mesurado from the east. A stone's throw 
from the shore is Carey island, on which the settlement was first 
made ; where the colonists were obliged, with arms in their hands, to 
procure water for their daily use. Stockton creek separates Bushrod 
island, a densely wooded flat, from the mainland; and connects, at its 
northern extremity, with the river St. Paul's, one and a half mile from 
the mouth of the latter. 

Just within the swell of the Cape, in a kind of bay, where, except 
in northerly winds, the sea breaks gently upon the shore, is the usual 
landing. Immediately back of the crest of the shelving shore, just 
beyond the reach of the heaviest breakers, is a small African village, 
inhabited mostly by males, who come from their native districts in 
search of occupation. Their huts are constructed of wattled cane, 
lined with mats, and are smaller than those at Sierra Leone and the 
Gambia. They have no enclosures, and make no attempt to cultivate 
the soil ; but look only to the sea for their subsistence. They are called 
Kroomen, and their distinctive mark is an arrow tattooed on each 
temple, the point towards the eye. Their only dress was a piece of 
blue cloth, sometimes merely a handkerchief, worn around the loins. 

From the village we crossed the neck of the low peninsula which 
terminates in Cape Ashmun, at the river's mouth; and, walking along 
an elevated foot-path, we saw a num.ber of small cattle, spotted black 
and white, in fine condition. These, with the exception of some goats, 
a dog, and a few lean and prowling swine, were the only quadrupeds 
we encountered. 

Instead of turning up to the town by a road which led to the right, 
we kept along the base of the ridge, and soon came to the wharves, 
where two small vessels were building and one undergoing repair, 
and about the stores were a number of palm-oil casks and some large 
canoes, all indicating a degree of commercial activity; thence, ascend- 
ing the rough hill-side, we passed several houses, one of them a sub- 
stantial church, nearly finished, and in a few moments reached Broad- 
way, the central and principal street of the town. This street, and those 
parallel to it, run nearly north and south, and at regular intervals are 



fit. Doc. 1. 



21 



intersected by others at right-angles, all broad and straight, but, ex- 
cepting a path in the centre of each, much overgrown with senna and 
wild indigo. 

Monrovia, which contains about 300 houses and 2,000 inhabitants, is 
built, as I have said, on a depression of the ridge which sweeps inland 
from the cape. About midway the length of the principal street the 
land swells up like an earth-wave, and sinks immediately down the 
street, crossing the summit and following the declivity. On the sum- 
mit is Fort Hill, where, in December, 1822, in the infancy of the set- 
tlement, the heroic Ashmun, rising from his bed of sickness, with 
thirty-four brave colonists repulsed an assault made by eight hundred 
savages. 

The houses are detached, being built on lots of a quarter of an acre 
each. They are of good size, some two stories, but most of them one 
and a half, consisting of a single story of frame resting on a basement 
of stone, with a portico front and rear. Man}^ of them were neatly, 
and two or three handsomely, furnished. There were twelve houses 
under construction, mostly of stone ; and there were, besides, a few 
which looked in good preservation ; but most of the frame dwellings 
presented an old and dilapidated appearance, owing to the humid 
climate during half the year, the scarcity of whitewash and paint, and 
the ravages of the beeg — a bug — a destructive species of termite. For 
the last reason, all the new houses not built in the native fashion — of 
wattles, mud, and grass — are constructed of stone, while the old frame 
ones are abandoned to decay. 

In almost every yard there were fruit- trees — mostly the lime, the 
lemon, the banana, the pawpaw — and the coffee- tree ; sometimes the 
orange, and now and then the soursop and the tamarind. The oranges 
were good, but scarce ; and the lemons large and fine. The cocoa 
grows abundantl}^, and the pomegranate, the fig, the vine, and a tree 
bearing the cashew-nut, are to be seen, but not in abundance. 

The soil is thin and not productive, resting upon a ferruginous rock 
which occasionally crops out. The gardens are enclosed by wooden 
palings, generally in a state of decay, or by stone walls without mor- 
tar. In them were only a few collards and some cassada, sweet po- 
tatoes, and arrow-root. But it is not the proper season for vegetables, 
and a few months hence these gardens may, and doubtless will, pre- 
sent a more gratifying appearance. 

The suburbs, the river, and the inner harbor, are commanded by 
Fort Hill, as the outer anchorage is by that of Fort Norris at the cape. 

The view from Fort Hill is a very fine one. To the west and south- 
west it overlooks the houses and the trees far out upon the sea; on 
the north and east, Stockton creek and the two branches of the Mesu- 
rado flow gently through an alluvial plain ; and to the southeast the 
eye follows the direction of the ridge which stretches far into the in- 
terior. 

On Broadway, south of Fort Hill, is the government house — a large 
stone building, with arched windows and a balcony in front. The 
lower floor is used as a court-room and printing-office, and the upper as 
the hall of legislative council ; behind it is the jail ; directly opposite is 
the President's mansion — a double two-story brick-house, with a front 



22 



H. Doc. 1. 



portico — its roof sustained by lofty columns. It is the most imposing 
building in the place. There are five churches, all well attended. 
Indeed, I never saw a more thoroughgoing church community, or heard 
a greater rustling of silk, on the dispersal of a congregation, than here ; 
all were at least sufficiently attired ; and the dresses of the children 
were in better taste than those of their mothers. One of the most grat- 
ifying things I noticed was the great number of well-dressed and well- 
behaved children in the schools and about the streets. The schools 
are also numerous and well attended. I did not see sufficient to justify 
the expression of an opinion, except that, while I noticed the attendance 
was full in almost every one, it seemed to me that, in some instances, 
the acquirements of the teachers were surpassed by the capacities oi 
their scholars ; but for all the purposes of rudimental education the 
materials are ample. I feel a delicacy in alluding to this subject, and 
only say what has escaped me from a solicitude that the generation 
now coming forward may sustain the institutions of the repubhc. 

The colonists were all decently clothed ; and of the natives moving 
about the streets, with very few exceptions, the most indifferently clad 
wore a long loose shirt, but their heads and legs were bare. One of 
the latter I saw reading apparently a book which he held before him 
as he walked. 

On the outskirts of the towm is a large coffee grove, which did not 
seem to be in a thriving condition ; and altogether, in and around 
Monrovia, agriculture wore a languishing appearance. This is doubt- 
less owing, in part, to the poverty of the soil, and in part to the over- 
weening spirit of trade ; there being evidently a preponderance of petty 
retail shops. I must say, however, that the town presented a far more 
prosperous appearance than I had been led to anticipate. From its 
fine situation it must eventually be a salubrious one. The sea-breeze 
at all seasons blows directly over it, and in this respect it is far prefer- 
able to Sierra Leone. The bifurcation of the river St. Paul's to the 
north gives, through Stockton creek, its southern branch, a direct and 
easy access to that river at all times, without encountering the perils 
of either bar. On the southeast the east branch of the Mesurado is 
separated by a portage only five miles from the head of Junk river, 
which flows into the sea thirty-five miles down the coast. Monrovia 
will therefore be the outlet of the products of an extent of country not 
less than 1,250 square miles. 

During the time of the Portuguese ascendency, the Mesurado was 
called Rio Duro, from the cruelty of the natives — a cruelty fostered, if 
not engendered, by the whites. 

It is but fair to state, that the land on the northeast Mesurado gives 
little promise of being soon brought into cultivation. The banks are so 
low as to be overflowed at every tide, and are covered, as far as the 
eye can reach, with an impenetrable growth of mangroves, while the 
sluggish stream is discolored by the black mud of the marshes, from 
which, at low water, a most offensive odor is exhaled. 

At 13 miles Irom Monrovia, the east branch is too shallow for canoe 
navigation ; and a quarter of a mile above its source is an extensive 
morass, overgrown with long grass and mangrove bushes. The scenery 
is the same as that on the northeast branch. A short distance from the 



H. Doc. 1. 



23 



morass is a native village ; the soil around it exhausted from repeated 
cultivation, and producing little else than cassada. 

From thence, across the portage, to the Red Junk river, the surface 
of the country is nearly level, with extensive fields, no longer under 
cultivation, skirted with open forests. The soil is light loam, intermixed 
with sand, and producing only a long, coarse grass. In some places 
the plain is thickly studded with tumuli, formed by the Termite helli- 
cosi, (called by the natives bug-a-bug.) These mounds are from 8 to 
12 feet high, and 10 to 14 thick at the base: some having been aban- 
doned by the ants, were covered with grass embrowned by the sun, 
which gave them, at a distance, the appearance of native huts. 

While observing as well as I could the condition of things around 
me, I did not lose sight of the principal object of my mission, and soon 
after my arrival set out for the St. Paul's, in a boat manned by natives. 
For the first six miles our course was up Stockton creek, a wide and 
shallow stream, with a low mangrove swamp on each side, (Rhizophera 
mangle,) which, like the Ficus religiosa of India, propagates itself in 
a two-fold manner : by perpendicular shoots descending from its branches, 
and by dropping its long, slender, sharp-pointed seed-pods, which im- 
plant themselves in the soft mud beneath, and then take root and grow 
up into trees, with almost as many stems as branches. On the edge of 
the banks, on each side, the mangroves throw down their long, fantastic 
shoots, and within them the tops of lofty trees arch overhead, their 
branches interlaced with parasitic creepers, while through the crevices 
of the foliage the flickering sunshine streams upon the sluggish water. 

From the growth of trees of which we occasionally caught a glimpse 
through the mangrove border, there was evidently a drier soil some dis- 
tance inland; but the shores of the creek, with the exception of two 
small clearings — one the site of a native village, the other the landing of 
New Georgia — were for nearty the whole distance one inexplicable net- 
work of tangled roots and twisted stems and branches. Through this 
net- work we occasionally caught sight of a monkey fr isking about the 
tree-tops, and sometimes disturbed a crocodile (miscalled alligator) from 
his sleep, and saw him clumsily flounder away through the mud to fin- 
ish his slumber elsewhere. These, with some mud-snipes and curlews, 
were the only living things we saw. Such an effect had the solitude 
and the scene upon me, that I almost wound myself up to the expecta- 
tion of beholding the huge iguanadon dragging himself through the fetid 
slime. 

There was not a sign of cultivation, nor of an attempt to reclaim the 
soil ; and the stifling hot weather, the sluggish stream, and the tainted 
odor of putrescent vegetable matter, painfully depressed my spirits; but 
when we passed the lower settlement of Caldwell and entered a bold, 
swift-flowing river, three-fourths of a mile in width, with banks 10 to 
30 feet high, dotted with farm-houses, few of them a quarter of a mile 
apart, it was like the shifting of a scene in a theatre, and I gazed with 
satisfaction upon the beautifiil sight. 

Nothing had been told me to excite anticipation ; and the transition 
was therefore as unexpected as it was gratifying. The breeze, no 
longer intercepted, swept refreshingly up from the sea, but half a mile 



24 



H. Doc. 1. 



distant by the river ; and, turning our boat's head up stream, we joy- 
fully pursued our way. 

The banks are uneven — at some places high and steep ; at others 
coming down with a slope to the water's edge. On each side is a belt 
of cultivation, with a dense forest-growth behind it; and the most con- 
spicuous objects of the scene were the light-green, broad-leaved foliage 
of the banana, clustering about every settlement, and the detached and 
distant palm-trees, which reared their dark, tufted heads above the sur- 
rounding mass of vegetation. 

The appearance of this tree is majestic, yet graceful. Its round, 
smooth trunk springs, shaft-like, into the air, from sixty to upwards of 
a hundred feet, and then expands its rich, fringe-like leaves into a 
canopy, twenty or thirty feet in diameter. 

The St. Paul's narrows very gradually in ascending it, and to the 
head of navigation is nowhere less than one-fourth of a mile in width. 
For the whole distance of fourteen miles from its mouth, there is a greater 
depth of water in the channel of the ri^'er than on the bars ; and, for 
its length, it is a magnificent stream, pouring down such a volume of 
water as to render it certain that, however soon its navigation may be 
intetrupted, it has its sources far in the interior. 

The soil on both sides is a loamy clay, equal in fertility to the best 
sugar lands in Brazil. There are on the banks of the river four hun- 
dred farms and three thousand cultivators. Many of the houses are 
built of brick, two of them double-sized two-story ones, and there were 
seven brick-kilns. 

J landed at four or five places, and saw every indication of comfort 
and prosperity — far more so than in Monrovia. The houses were well 
furnished, and in one of them was a room, specially assigned for the 
purpose, which contained a small but good library. The principal arti- 
cles I saw in cultivation were sugar, coffee, cassada, arrow-root, yams, 
sweet potatoes, and a few ground-nuts. Among the fruits were the 
luscious pine-apple, oranges, lemons, limes, bananas, plantains, and 
the paw-paw ; the last, in cooking, an excellent substitute for the 
apple. A little cotton is raised for domestic use. The sugar-cane was 
growing finely ; and at one of the farms I witnessed the operation of 
grinding it. The apparatus, in part the invention of the owner, was 
an ingenious one, but very wasteftal in its process ; yet the proprietor 
expected to make nine thousand pounds of sugar and several hundred 
gallons of molasses this year. I tasted the sirup, which, owing, I pre- 
sume, to the high temperature, was thinner than I have seen it during 
the grinding season in Louisiana. Some of the sugar of last year's 
crop was as light in color and as well granulated as the best Porto 
Rico I have seen. I scarce think, however, that sugar can to any 
extent be profitably cultivated, owing to the deficiency of capital and 
the consequent want of machinery. 

Coffee will, I think, become eventually the great staple of this sec- 
tion of country. The tree grows indigenous, can be transplanted with 
ease, and requires little care in its cultivation ; and, where it is not ex- 
tensively grown, its berry may be gathered as a pastime by women and 
children. I was shown one sample raised on the St. Paul's, and tried 
another gathered in Monrovia. The last, which I did not see in the 



H. Doc. 1. 



25 



berry, was excellent ; but I cannot sustain the assertion that it is better 
than the Mocha. The former was of a clear light color, and the grains 
were tlie largest I have ever seen ; I am not aware, however, that the 
large size of the grain is, per se, an indication of superior quality. 

From all that I could observe or learn from others, a taste lor agri- 
culture is becoming prevalent ; and I cannot give a better idea of the 
prosperity of the settlements on the St. Paul's, than by stating that 
cleared land fronting on the river sells at from $40 to $50 per acre. 
Some of the country seats looked beautiful from the river, and their 
names are characteristic of their owners ; some being unpretending, 
but expressive; some classic, and some scriptural — "JPleasant View," 
"Iconium," and "Mount Horeb." 

Opposite to Caldwell is the settlement of New Virginia ; where, in 
1847, the government of the United States built a receptacle for libe- 
rated Africans. Higher up are Kentucky, Heddington, and Millsburg. 
Heddington was fiercely attacked by the natives in 1841, and gallantly 
defeirded by a missionar}^ and one of the colonists ; the leader of the 
assailants was killed and his part}^ dispersed. These four are little 
more than a close contiguity of small farms ; but Millsburg, at the head 
of navigation, and the farthest inland settlement m Liberia, is a flour- 
ishing village and missionary school station ; and on the opposite side 
of the river is the mission of" White Plains." 

From its situation, Millsburg must be comparatively healthy, and is 
certainly beautiful. The river, separated by an island into two chan- 
nels, there forces itself over a rocky ledge with the rushing sweep and 
hoarse sound of a rapid. The ledge is, however, a narrow one, and a 
channel through it might be blasted with gunpowder, or it could be 
flanked by a canal. Above the. ledge the stream is unobstructed for 
about ten miles, and the country through which it flows is yet more 
rolling and beautiful than it is below the rapids. The soil is a rich 
mould, formed by the vegetable decay of centuries, resting on a sub- 
stratum of clay, and covered with a luxuriant forest. 

At the rapids are a number of islands, clothed with luxuriant vege- 
tation ; and, as was remarked by the lamented Dr. Randall, the islands 
differ from each other in their verdure, and from that of the main land. 
Each one seems to have caught, in the autumnal inundations, the seeds 
and roots of particular plants and shrubs brought down from the in- 
terior; for, while differing from those on tlie main, no two resemble 
each other in their peculiar foliage. 

Above the islands the country is represented as most beautiful, 
bearing trees of immense size, clear of undergrowth, and having their 
branches interwoven with vines, and decorated with gaudy parasitic 
plants, forming a shade impervious to the sun, and imparting a coolness 
to the atmosphere which is truly delightful. The stream, irregular in 
its width, sometimes forces its way through fissures in the rocks, and 
at others forms deep pools, where the water is so transparent that the 
bottom is distinctly visible. It seems as if the foot of man had never 
trodden these lovely solitudes, where the silence is only interrupted by 
the murmuring sound of water, the scream of the fish-hawk, and the 
chattering of monkeys pursuing their gambols among the trees. 



26 



H. Doc. 1. 



This must, however, be taken cum grano salis; for, in the rainy 
season the river overflows its banks and inundates the country. 

The river St. Paul's has its source in the same range of hills from 
which the Karamanka issues ; and, by barometrical measurement, these 
hilis are 1,400 feet in height, which is about the elevation of the head- 
waters of the Mississippi. The scenery of the upper St. Paul's will, 
therefore, compare with that of the Karamanka, although more than 
two degrees intervene between their outlets. 

The late Major Laing thus describes the country bordering on the 
latter river : 

" The valleys are picturesque and fertile, and are watered by nu- 
merous rivulets, which, running from north to south, collect behind the 
lofty hill of Botato, and contribute in swelling the river Karamanka. 
I was frequently induced to stop to contemplate the lovely scene around 
me, consisting of extensive meadows clothed with verdure ; fields, from 
which the springing rice was sending forth its vivid shoots, not inferior 
in beauty and health to the corn-fields of England in March, inter- 
spersed here and there with a patch of ground studded with palm- 
trees; while the neighboring hills, some clothed with rich foliage — 
some exhibiting a bald and weather-beaten appearance, formed a noble 
theatre around me. We left the town of Nijiniah, on the Karamanka, 
and having walked an hour and three-quarters, gained the summit of 
one of the hills ; and in one direction, on the opposite side, a scene 
quite panoramic broke upon the view: an extensive valley, partly 
cultivated and partly covered with a long, natural grass, about five 
feet high, with lines of stately palm-trees, as regular as if laid out by 
art, and here and there a cluster of camwood trees, their deep shade 
affording a relief to the lighter hue of the smaller herbage. 

" These, with a murmuring rivulet, meandering through the centre, 
exhibited the appearance of a well cultivated and tastefully arranged 
garden, rather than a tract amid the wilds of Africa; whilst, in the 
distance, mountain towered above mountain in all the grandeur and 
magnificence of nature." 

Without being so wide or so impetuous in its current, there is much 
in the St. Paul's (one feature excepted) to suggest what might have 
been the appearance of the Mississippi above La Fourche, and below 
Baton Rouge, before the less pretending houses of the Creole planters 
were displaced by the stately mansions of the present proprietors. 

The St. Paul's connects, it is said, with Half-cape Mount river by 
a branch that runs parallel with the coast, and both abound in fish and 
a small species of the '''■Hippopotamus liberie?isis,^^ thus named by the 
late Dr. Morton, of Philadelphia, from cranicB sent to him by Dr. 
Goheen. This animal is said to be extremely tenacious of life, and, 
except to gunpowder and ball, almost invulnerable. When injured he 
becomes dangerous; but if unmolested, never, the natives say, attacks 
any one. The flavor of the flesh is described as intermediate between 
that of veal and beef 

About seventy miles from Millsburg, in a direction a little east ot 
north, is Boporah, a large native town, formerly containing more than 
a thousand houses, fortified with a strong barricade. The path to it 
leads through a dense forest, in which there are elephants and a great 



H. Doc. 1 



27 



many other wild animals. For the first fifty miles there are no villages, 
and the only natives met v^ith are the elephant-hunters, who are nu- 
merous, and represented as firiendly. The St. Paul's passes within 
25 miles of the town, winding, in its course, among many islands. 

On both shores of Stockton creek, as well as on the Mesurado, are 
many alligators' nests. They are about four feet high, and five in 
diameter at the base, made of mud and grass, very much resembling 
haycocks. The female first deposites a layer of eggs on a floor of a 
kind of mortar, and she and her mate having covered this with mud 
and herbage, she lays another set of eggs, and so on to the top ; there 
being sometimes as many as two hundred eggs in a nest. All is plas- 
tered over with mud by the tail, and the grass around the nest is beat 
down with the same member, to prevent an unseen approach of ene- 
mies. The female then watches the nest until the young are hatched 
by the heat of the sun ; when she takes them under her care. 

In order not to lose time waiting for the steamer which had been 
promised me, I requested Commander Barron to convey me to the Junk 
river, about thirty miles down the coast. Leaving an order, therefore, 
for the Vixen to follow, we weighed anchor in the afternoon of a clear, 
warm day, and, sailing slowly southward, had the best view of Mon- 
rovia, spread out on the cleared portion of the ridge, where it is de- 
pressed within eighty feet of the sea. 

From Cape Mesurado to the Junk river, the coast runs in a south 
east direction ; and presents, as heretofore, the same low line of sand, 
with a back-ground of forest for eight or ten miles, where a slightly 
elevated ridge is thrown up immediately upon the shore. About the 
same distance from it, but further inland, are the " Crown " and the 
"Cockscomb" — two isolated hillocks; and beyond them, and thrice 
the distance inland from the coast, south of the Junk river, are two 
remarkable peaks with a depressed ridge between, called " Saddle 
Hill," towering above the sea of verdure, and measuring 1,070 feet in 
height. Beyond the Saddle Hill are two other peaks, dimly visible 
in the distance. With these interruptions, all else is a sandy beach, 
edged with a glittering line of light, where the surf breaks upon it, 
backed by a vast forest stretching to the horizon. 

Anchoring off the mouth of the Junk river, I was compelled to re- 
main nearly two days inactive, in consequence of heavy breakers on 
the bar. It was the change of the moon ; and the colonists maintain, 
that at such times, from the increased swell, the passage of the bar is 
impracticable. 

When the swell seemed to have sufficiently subsided, with the native 
crew which always accompanied me, I started for the shore. These 
men were of the Nifou tribe, whose territory is farther down the coast. 

Although muscular, active, and in the open sea fearless in the man- 
agement of their canoes, a circumstance occurred on our way to the 
shore, which satisfied me that they are not to be relied upon in danger. 
Trusting to the head man, who steered the boat and directed the crew, 
ten in number, how to manage the oars, (for on their skilful manage- 
ment almost everything depends,) I felt no apprehension, and directed 
my attention to the shore, which we were rapidly approaching. A 
startling exclamation roused me ; and looking back, I saw a low, black 



28 



H. Doc. 1. 



cloud sweeping towards us, and driving a huge wave before it. We 
were almost on the bar ; and the terrified crew were divided in opin- 
ion as to whether we could cross it before the gigantic roller overtook 
us. To be caught by it before we were safely over would be certain 
destruction. At this trying time the panic-stricken boatmen failed me ; 
and in loud confusion they argued what should be done, when every 
instant's inactivity increased the peril fourfold. But as soon as the ques- 
tion was settled lor them, and the steersman was directed to turn the 
boat's head towards the southern shore, they gave way with all their 
might, and, although borne down to the very edge of the outer break- 
ers, we gained the beach in safety. I am satisfied that, with a good 
pilot, it would be less dangerous to cross these difficult bars in a boat 
manned by white men. 

We landed just below Bassa Point, near the dwelling of a colonist. 
It was recently built, in a clearing in the midst of a grove of palm- 
trees ; and I found him, with three or four natives in his employment, 
busied in extracting from the palm-nut the rich oil it yields. After 
resting a short time under his thatched roof, with the assistance of his 
laborers, we dragged the boat up the high, shelving bank, and over a 
narrow strip of sand, and launched her in the South Junk, which, flow- 
ing nearly parallel with the coast, unites with the other branches just 
inside the bar. 

From thence we pulled over to the village of Marshall, on the north- 
ern bank, about half a mile from the river's mouth. This was the last 
settlement made by the parent Colonization Society in Liberia. It is 
elevated about forty feet above the river, and its situation is a fine one 
in appearance ; but the soil around it is poor, and the place far from 
flourishing. Originally laid out on an enlarged plan, it now contains 
but thirty or forty houses, built along the river-bank — a few of them 
frame buildings, but most of them plastered mud-walls, with thatched 
roofs — many presenting a dilapidated appearance. 

The only article of export 1 saw was a quantity of lime, made from 
the oyster-shell upon the shore ; and I was assured that this place 
wholly supplies Monrovia, and partly the other settlements, with this 
invaluable building material. Oysters are plentiful here ; but they are 
only palatable when cooked ; and the river abounds with mullet. 
There is some small traffic here with the natives in camwood, palm- 
oil, and a little ivory ; but it is much interfered with by dealers from 
Monrovia. 

It being Sunday when I arrived, after conversing with some of the 
citizens, I accepted an invitation to attend church, and there heard a 
sermon from a venerable colored preacher which I shall not soon forget. 
I have heard many stereotyped sermons, but never one to move me as 
much as this. The distant booming of the surf on one side, through 
which I had to pass to rejoin my companions, and the dark, teeming 
forest upon the other, tended, no doubt, to enhance the solemnity of the 
scene; for, seated upon a rush floor beneath a roof of thatch, as I lis- 
tened to the earnest tones of the feeble old man, I never felt more im- 
pressed with a sense of my own undeserving. I mention this, because 
I conceive that I should withhold nothing which may convey a correct 
idea of the impressions made on me in Liberia. In a personal sense, 



H. Doc. 1. 



29 



these impressions ^.re insignificant and wholly unworthy of record. 
Their only importance is derived from the scene which gave them birth, 
and from the inference to be drawn from it, that Christianity has its ex- 
emplars in benighted Africa, as well as in our own more favored land. 

About a mile above the settlement is the confluence of two streams — 
the Red Junk, flowing down from the north, and the Junk, or main 
stream, from the east. The Red Junk, near its source, is connected 
with the eastern branch of the Mesurado by a narrow portage. At 
the junction the banks of both streams are low and bordered with man- 
grove thickets. 

About two miles up the Red Junk there is a native village, and from 
thence the banks become more elevated and present a more attractive 
appearance. The palm-trees become more frequent, and, in the space 
of twenty miles, the scene is enlivened by a number of villages — the 
light- green leaves of the banana indicating their locality long before 
the brown roofs become visible. The course of the stream is winding, 
and its width various; at times but 150 to 200 yard^, with compara- 
tively high banks, and again spreading out to nearly a mile in width, 
with low and sedgy shores. 

The vegetation is very luxuriant and much diversified in its charac- 
ter. The scenery of the river's banks is described as rich beyond con- 
ception. 

" Trees of singular form and foliage spring from the deep, rich soil, 
and rear their heads to an amazing height ; while their branches are 
covered with a beautiful draper}^ of vines, forming a dense shade, and 
hanging, in many places, to the surface of the water." 

Looking closety at these trees, a large black knot is occasionally seen 
swelling irregularly out of the branch to which it attaches. It would 
be set down as a fungus, but that a more scrutinizing glance detects 
the head of a snake projected above the coil, in an attitude of menacing 
vigilance. On the near approach of the boat every fold is shaken out, 
as by a single effort, and the snake precipitates itself into the water and 
disappears. It is the well-known black snake, measuring from four to 
six feet in length and two to four inches in diameter, which frequents 
the banks of rivers, and is said, by the natives, to be amphibious. 

The fertility of the soil, combined with the presence of moisture, 
gives a peculiar depth and vividness of green to the foliage; and the 
stream, as smooth as a polished mirror, reflects the variegated beauties 
which clothe its banks. Occasionally a light native canoe shoots down 
with the current, or paddles up stream, close along the shore ; while 
among the trees, a short distance back, monkeys are seen springing 
from limb to limb, in pursuance of their gambols. As on the St. Paul's 
and the Mesurado, the stranger is little annoyed by mosquitoes and 
flies, and is struck with the scarcity of birds and flowers. 

In the rainy season the first deficiency may be more than satisfacto- 
rily supplied, and the moist, gloomy shades of the forest are unfit nur- 
series jfor flowers, which thrive best in a light soil and where they can 
expand their petals to the sun. 

Of the birds to be seen in the recesses of the wood, very few are 
gifi:ed with melodious notes; but by the compensatory law of nature, 
some of them are magnificent in their plumage. Of these, the sun- 



30 



H. Doc. 1. 



bird, scarce larger than our smallest humming-bird, with its scarlet 
breast, tinged straw-color at the edges, its emerald throat and back, 
and dove-colored wings, and a tail longer than its body, is the most 
beautifully conspicuous. Others I saw wholly of one color — some of 
the deepest indigo-blue, and others a rich tinted orange. But they par- 
took of the spirit of the sohtude in which they dwelt, and flitted silently 
from tree to tree before the footsteps of the intruder. 

Like the Red Junk, -the Junk proper has low banks, bordered with 
mangroves for about three miles from the junction, where the shore 
rises on each side and the soil becomes fertile, occasionally presenting 
a shght elevation, on each of which is a settlement comprising three 
farms of colonists and two native villages. 

The river averages about 300 yards in width to King Kymocree's 
village — a collection of twelve or fourteen low-pitched, mud-plastered 
huts, with projecting thatched roofs and uneven clay floors. In the 
centre of the floor is the fireplace — the only outlet for the smoke being 
the low and narrow door-way, near which the inmates are always, by 

E reference, seated. The principal building, in front of which the king 
eld his audience, was built of wattled cane ; but not plastered, being 
open all round. About six feet from the floor were cross-pieces ; on 
which, up to the roof, was piled rice in the sheaf, to be dried by the 
smoke of the council-fire. The king is short of stature, but with a 
muscular frame ; and his features altogether are more of the true negro 
type than I have thus far seen in Africa. He was cordial and commu- 
nicative ; and the colonists represented him as a staunch friend and 
ally, having in the late w^ar borne arms gallantly in their behalf. He 
possesses a number of villages — their male inhabitants, like those of 
the one w^e were in, being nearly all absent some distance inland, clear- 
ing land preparatory to sowing rice. He presented us to three of his 
wives and six or eight children ; declaring that the latter were so 
numerous, that he did not know them all by sight. His tribe is one of 
the many ramifications of the Bassas, of w^hom I will speak further on. 

Although scarce beyond middle age, this chief was quite gray ; and, 
in this respect, I have repeatedly noticed the difference between the 
African and Mexican Indian, whose hair never changes its color. 
There is also a perceptible difference in the texture of the hair 
of natives along the coast ; for, as I have proceeded south, it has ap- 
peared to me to be finer, more elastic, blacker, more shining and crisp, 
than in Goree and about the Gambia. 

Thus far 1 have not seen an instance of baldness among the natives ; 
but their lips are, in general, as dark as their faces : therein differing 
from most of their descendants with us ; and the whites of their eyes 
are tinged with a yellow sufflision, which I know not whether to ascribe 
to the constant smoke in which they are enveloped in their huts, or to 
some organic cause. I incline to the latter opinion ; for the eyes of the 
Kroomen, who had been serving two years on board of the John 
Adams, were as much discolored as those of the natives I saw on 
shore. 

Above the mangroves the land has the appearance of great fertility, 
and teems with every production of an intertropical forest. This stream 
is broader and bolder than the Red Junk, but the features of its shores 



H. Doc. 1. 



31 



are exactly the same. It is navigable by boats for thirteen miles ; and 
twelve miles further there is a ridge of high land, east of which is an 
extensive lake, from whence the river issues. Twenty miles beyond 
the first ridge is a second and loftier one, from which the blue crest of 
a mountain is visible to the southward and eastward. 

The level land west of the ridges, and the valleys between them, is 
one dense, wide-spreading forest. These ridges are evidently the out- 
lying shoots of an interior mountain range. From all I could learn 
there is much camwood in the interior ; and the forest beyond the first 
ridge of highlands abounds in elephants. The exports of camwood 
and ivory could therefore be very much increased ; while it needs only 
a glance in any direction to see the numerous palm-trees, bearing aloft 
thick clusters of fruit, which only require the hand of industry to gather 
and express from them the valuable oil ; the demand for which, now 
that it can be deprived of its stearine, increases with every successive 
year. 

Marshall is injudiciously situated on a sandy soil, which is parched 
up during the dry season, and is therefore unfit for cultivation. Could 
the settlement be removed to a convenient point on the main stream, near 
the confluence, the colonists disposed to agriculture would find more 
fertile land, while those embarked in commerce could engross the 
river trade, which, as I have said, is so much interfered with by mer- 
cantile agents from Monrovia. Several of the colonists are making set- 
tlements a short distance up the river ; and I believe there would be a 
general movement if the few enterprising men now in the place were 
not so hampered by a disproportionate number of helpless women. A 
settlement at or near the point of junction could raise enough for its 
subsistence ; and, by means of a direct intercourse with the interior 
up one stream, and with Monrovia by another, unaffected by the 
weather on the coast, would, doubtless, carry on a thriving business. 

From the Junk to the St. John's river the coast preserves its south- 
east direction, with the same monotonous features, except some red 
and white cliffs which abut upon the shore below the former ; and 
inland, the range of Bassa hills and the isolated Mount St. John, which 
become visible on approaching the latter river. 

We anchored off the mouth of the St. John's too late to enter it by 
daylight. On the following morning we started for the shore, and, 
passing a Liberian schooner, bound to Monrovia with a cargo of palm- 
oil, and an EngHsh cutter coming up from the southward, we steered 
for the opening in the fine of beach, where, with a graceful curve and 
a rapid sweep, the river finds an outlet ; and, < rossing the bar on a 
heavy roller, we landed at Buchanan. 

Within the bar are concentrated the waters of three rivers : the 
Mechlin, flowing from the north ; the St. Johns, from the northeast ; and 
the Benson river, from the east. This great body of accumulated 
water is forced through a passage narrower than the principal stream ; 
and when the tide is ebb and the wind blows fresh upon the shore, 
there is drawn across it a fine of terrific breakers. At this season, 
however, the winds are ordinarily light, and with a skilful pilot the 
bar can be passed in safety. 

On the sandy peninsula between the Mechlin and the sea, just within 



S2 



H. Doc. 1. 



the confluence, some thirty feet above the water, is the village of Edi- 
na; the streets contiguous to and running parallel with the river. This 
settlement consists of a church and some twenty or thirty dwelhngs, of 
which the former and three -fourths of the latter are frame buildings; 
the rest are thatched huts. 

This settlement presents an unthrifty appearance. The wide rec- 
tangular streets are overgrown with weeds; and although there are 
several coffee groves, the trees are too thickly planted, and the ground 
between them is covered with rank grass and shrubbery. In the rainy 
season the path which winds through each street, like a trail through a 
prairie, must effectually conceal those who pass to and fro, from those 
who remain stationary in their houses. If I had not known it before, 
the lean condition^ of some vagabond pigs I saw would have satisfied 
me that there is nothing nutritious in senna and wild indigo. And yet 
there was nothing gaunt or slovenly in the appearance of the inhabit- 
ants ; and at the first threshold I approached I was greeted by an old 
colored lady, attired in a silk dress, with corresponding trimmings. 

The Benson river pours in its tribute opposite to Edina ; and on the 
west side of the junction is the flourishing town of Buchanan. This set- 
tlement was founded by the New York and Pennsylvania Colonization 
Societies, in 1835, and consists of the emigrants who escaped from the 
massacre at Fort Cresson, two miles further down the coast. In 1838 
the population of Buchanan was 200 : it now contains 600 inhabitants, 
and musters 100 fighting men. The last has become an essential item 
in the statistics of the place. 

This colony was first founded on the peace principle, but the massacre 
of its unarmed inhabitants conclusively proved the folly of such an 
experiment, on such a field ; for, in the space of one month, in the very 
year of its selection, 500 slaves had been embarked from the cove ; 
and it was known that the native chiefs regarded the settlement of col- 
onists in their vicinity as destructive of their traffic with the slave ships. 

On Benson river, adjoining the town, there was a steam saw-mill in 
operation ; and in the cove beyond it, one small vessel was hauled up 
for repairs, and two others were anchored in the stream. 

Between the Benson river and the confluent streams, before they 
mingle with the sea, Buchanan is built, on wide streets ranning parallel 
with the beach, and they are less encumbered with weeds than those 
of Edina. Unprotected by whitewash or paint, the houses all present 
a dingy, semi-dilapidated appearance, except the residence of Judge 
Benson, on the south side of the cove ; which looks fresh and beautiful, 
embowered, as it is, in an extensive grove of coffee-trees. 

The St. John's river is as wide as would be the united streams of 
the Mechlin and the Benson. It is half a mile wide at the estuary ; 
and for a mile further up, is fringed with the mangrove. Thence it 
gradually lessens in width, and at the distance of three miles is di- 
vided into two channels by Factory island, on which Mr. Ashmun con- 
templated forming a settlement. Above the island the river narrows 
more rapidly, and does not exceed 200 yards in width at Bexley, a 
missionary school station, and rather a farming settlement than a vil- 
lage, seven miles from the river's mouth. 

Opposite to the mission is the town of "King Soldier" — a venerable 



H. Doc. 1. 



33 



and friendly old man, upwards of one hundred years old. A little above 
is another island, half a mile beyond which is the head of navigation, 
where the immediate banks are about twelve feet hioh. 

The scenery is the same as that on the Junks, except that there are 
more frequent indications of agricultural improvement. After the man- 
grove ceases, the soil is a yellow clay ; and the principal growth on 
and near the water's edge is a medium-sized tree, from its peculiar 
properties called the soap-tree ; and the more lofty pullam or wild cot- 
ton tree, the sassy- wood tree, and the palm-tree. The qualities of the 
soap-tree are the same as those Herodotus mentions, of the shavings 
of which the Scythian women made a soft paste, wherewith they 
plastered their bodies, and stripped it off again when quite dry ; by 
which means the skin was thoroughly cleansed. 

One of the farm-houses at which 1 stopped was finely situated on a 
rolling piece of ground, some eighty feet above and one hundred and 
fifty yards distant from the river. It was well furnished and contained 
two rooms and a kitchen below stairs, and an attic sleeping-room above. 
It was the workmanship of the owner — an emigrant from Stauntoii, in 
Virginia ; and the neat, yet strong stairway of wattled cane, and the 
partitions made of rushes, attested his industry and skill; while a small, 
but good library, proved that he possessed yet other resources. Him- 
self, his wife and daughter, made the same declaration, which, with 
two exceptions (and those unprotected females,) I have heard from many 
others — that nothing could induce them again to take up their residence 
in the United States. 

On the banks of the river, between Buchanan and Bexley, are the 
farms of eight or ten colonists, with as many native settlements ; and I 
think that I counted two brick-kilns ; but, as on the branches of the 
Junk aia^l the St. Paul's, the settlements extend only a short distance 
back Irom the river. Including Bexley, there are 250 colonists on the 
St. John's above Buchanan. 

The mission-house, just below the settlement of Bexley, is a fine two- 
story frame building, occupied at the time of my visit by two male 
and three female missionaries. They had arrived a month previous, 
and were still in the enjoyment of excellent health. Although unprovi- 
ded with a physician, they spoke, cheerfully of their prospects, and ex- 
pressed gratification at finding things so much beiter than they had an- 
ticipated. 

I felt aglow of pride, tempered with sympath}^ as I looked upon my 
countrymen and countrywomen periling all earthly hopes in such a 
noble cause. This is true heroism — the chivalry of the gospel! For 
warlike achievements, men are almost deified; while the self-sacrificing 
missionary, Avho foregoes all the comforts of life, and, with the cross for 
his banner, boldly penetrates the cloud which overshadows this conti- 
nent, and encounters certain sickness and death, more or less premature, 
for the benefit of a benighted race, — the missionary is rarely named, 
except with the final enunciation, Mortuiis est.'''' 

There is a considerable tract of land under cultivation at Bexley. 
I could not ascertain how much its produce has increased ; but some 
years ago it yielded 600 lbs. of coftee; nearly 3,000 lbs. of ginger; 1,100 
baskets of sweet potatoes; 1,200 lbs. of arrow-root; and 300 bushels 
3 



34 



H. Doc. 1. 



of cassada. There were raised, besides, a great many fowls, and some 
sheep, goats, and cattle. 

Beyond the rapids, the St. John's is navigable by canoes six miles 
further; from whence it is about ten miles to the base of Mount St. 
John ; beyond which is a broad valley, bounded on the east by ele- 
vated ridges. 

The principal forest growth beyond the head of navigation is cam- 
wood, bastard mahogany, African hickory, two kinds of wisniore — both 
admirably adapted for articles of furniture — and the oak, differing essen- 
tially from the species found from the tropics nearly to the polar circles, 
which is, throughout those regions, a cosmopolite of vegetation, being 
alike in its fruit, although much diversified in growth and the form of 
its leaves. 

From thirty to fifL\ miles from the sea is one uninterrupted camwood 
forest; and the wood is used by the natives as fuel, and for building pur- 
poses. They fell the trees, and split them up into billets fifteen or six- 
teen inches long, which they carry in bundles on their heads to the near- 
est point of canoe navigation. Instead of this slow and laborious pro- 
cess, it is strange that it has never occurred to them to launch the trees, 
denuded of their branches, and raft them down the river. The whole 
world might be suppHed with camwood rafted down the St. John's. 

Most of the land bordering upon the sea has been, at different times, 
under cultivation ; but after yielding the first crop, a piece of land is 
abandoned, and a new clearing made f )r the succeeding one. As a 
natural consequence, a rapid growth of vegetation supervenes in the de- 
serted field, and it becomes, in a few years, a tangled thicket of trees 
and shrubs, bound together with the lacings of interminable vines and 
creepers. Added to which, from the incessant wars heretofore for the 
purpose of supplying the slave trade, the country along the ^ast has 
been half depopulated. Thus stripped of a great part of its primitive 
growth, and cultivated only in spots detached and distant from each 
other, the general aspect of the coast is that of a forest of dense and 
matted trees and shrubbery, almost destitute of its original character- 
istics. 

In ascending the rivers, however, a wholly different scene presents 
itself. The primitive forest, in all its native grandeur, covers the 
earth ; the graceful palm-tree waves its feathery branches in the breeze, 
and the lofty wisniore and huge bastard mahogany rear high their tow- 
ering heads, while among the green foliage is seen the gay coloring of 
blossoms on many a stately tree, which give a kaleidoscopic variety to 
the deep embowering wood. Far up the streams, the eye is charmed 
with the ever-varied landscape : the dense trees which overhang the 
banks, their towering height and majestic size, the vivid hues of their 
foliage, and the sombre shade, despite the rays of an unclouded sun. 

The profound stillness which prevails in these solitudes was dis- 
turbed at our approach, not only by the harsh grating of the oars in the 
rowlocks, but also by the wild and not unmelodious songs of the boat- 
men, which caused the basking crocodile to plunge into the stream, the 
monkey to retire into the recesses of the wood, and the fish-hawk to seek 
another position from whence to pounce upon his prey. 

The territory of Little Bassa has many subdivisions, under as man}^ 



H. Doc. 1. 



35 



names. It is compressed nearly into the form of a triangle by the At- 
lantic and the branches of the Junk and the St. John's rivers ; and is also 
a peninsula, as these streaojs approach each other very nearly in the 
interior. The country abounds in camwood and palm-oil, and the de- 
mand for the last is rapidly increasing, as it is now used instead of Rus- 
sian tallow in the manufacture of soap. Hundreds of tons of camwood, 
and many thousand gallons of oil, are annually shipped from these rivers. 

The new clearings on the river-banks, the steam saw-mill at Bu- 
chanan, the vessels in the cove, and the buildings under construction, 
all attest, with the exception of Edina, that the settlements on the St. 
John's are flourishing. 

About three miles further down the beach from Buchanan is Fish- 
town, now being resettled, where there are twenty houses under con- 
struction, and a considerable tract of land cleared for cultivation. In 
the environs of the former, and on the road to the la'tter, I saw a num- 
ber of cattle, larger in size than those of Monrovia. Their excellent 
condition verified the statement of respectable settlers that the neigh- 
borhood is a fine grass country. 

The landing-place at Bassa Cove is protected from the sweep of the 
southwest wind, the prevalent one during the rainy season, by Grand 
Bassa Point, which bends to the north and renders the landing safe, 
except during a northerly wind. Unfortunately, when I left, the wind 
blew from that quarter, driving a heavy sea beibre it. It was near 
night-fall when I embarked in a canoe, to be conveyed through the 
surf to the boat, which lay beyond the outer breakers. I took my seat 
in the little dug-out, which was so light that I could have carried it 
upon my shoulders, while two natives, one standing at each end, kept 
it from bein^ swerved entirely round and filled with water, as the 
waves broke upon the shore and washed knee-deep beyond them. As 
each wave receded, the two men pointed the bow anew in the right 
direction, and then stretching themselves up to the greatest height, 
watched the foaming crest of the succeeding roller, for an opportunity 
to launch forth and attempt a passage. It was necessary that those 
who had me in charge should not for one moment be distracted ; a 
few fi-iendly colonists, therefore, unable to assist, stood a short distance 
back, and watched our proceedings in silence. The scene to them 
must have been a wild and impressive one : the tiny canoe, the dusky 
forms of the natives, now and then shown in striking contrast as an 
angry breaker broke upon die shore, and sent its seething foam far up 
the beach, and the troubled sea beyond, with the boat in the foreground, 
tossing confusedly upon it. 

W e waited so long for an opportunity, that the ship, at first dimly 
visible in the distance, became lost in the fast increasing obscurity ; 
and the boat beyond the line of surf could only be distinguished as a 
dark speck upon the surface. 

At last there was a sudden shout, a push, a plunge, a rocking vio- 
lently from side to side, a rapid play of the paddles which seemed 
more like wild gesticulations than a concerted movement; and, after a 
lew moments' pitching and tossing, more than I ever pitched and tossed 
before, 1 found myself alongside the botit, and the canoe half filled 
with water. 



36 



H. Doc. 1. 



It was a long, cold, uncertain pull afterwards to the ship, four miles 
distant, against a high wind and heavy sea, and without a compass, 
which^ from fear of losing it by the upsetting of the canoe, had been 
left upon the shore. We were soon, however, favored with a beacon ; 
for a lantern was hoisted on board the ship. About an hour afterwards 
a blue hght was burned ; and in an hour more we pulled alongside, the 
Kroomen too weary to keep up their customary song. 

The next morning we sailed for Sinou, eighty miles further down 
the coast, a Liberian schooner taking her departure also for the south 
a few hours before us. The two canoemen, my companions of the 
night before, came off to bring the compass, and receive a compensa- 
tion for their services. They also brought a specimen of coffee from 
Judge Benson's plantation, for exhibition at tiie New York Crystal 
Palace. 

The Bassa tribe* occupies the coast and an indefinite distance inland, 
from the Mesurado to Settra Kroo, below Sinou. All the colonial set- 
tlements of Liberia are within the territory of this tribe. With this 
tribe, therefore, they are better acquainted, having daily and hourly 
intercourse with them ; nearly all the residents, natives of the settle- 
ment, being members of this large tribe, estimated to number 100,000 ! 
all speaking, with little variation, the same language ; their physical 
conformation, pursuits, manners, architecture, superstitions, and pro- 
ductions of the country, presenting a striking uniformity. This tribe, 
like others on the coast, embraces a great many subdivisions, under 
petty chiefs, of from 15 to 20 miles square, but forming combinations, 
to more or less extent, by general custom and superstitious laws, con- 
tinually harassing each other by family quarrels and petty jealousies. 
They are, nevertheless, industrious in their habits, not fond of wander- 
ing fir from their homes, and are imitative and desirous of improve- 
ment. 

Wars occasionally take place between two or more of the subdivi- 
sions ; but, when they have occurred heretofore, the slave trade was 
generally the exciting cause. With the extinction of that direful cause, 
its lamentable consequences it is hoped may be hereafter averted. 

Every town and village has its headman, who is subject to a king — 
generally an old man, to whom, as well as to the aged in general, 
great respect is paid. These kings and headmen do not appear to 
exercise despotic authority. An accused person is tried by the ordeal 
of drinking red water, a decoction of sassywood, or by a general 
palaver, which decides the innocence or guilt, and determines the 
punishment. 

Their towns are assemblages of small conical huts, placed without 
order, sometimes on the banks of rivers, but are most frequently hidden 
by the surrounding woods, to which they retreat when attacked by an 
enemy. These towns exhibit much pleasing harmony and good nature, 
having altogether the order and features of one great family. Poly- 
gamy is universal, the number of wives being the measure of a man's 
wealth ; y^t, nothing like indiscriminate licentiousness is to be seen. 
The men perform no servile labor, but pass most of the year in care- 
less indolence, except the months of February, March, and April, when 
the towns appear to be deserted by them, excepting one or two hoary- 



H. Doc. 1. 



37 



headed patriarchs ; all others being busied in cleaning and burning off 
their farms. 

At this time the whole line of coast presents an interesting spectacle 
from the sea — volumes of smoke by day, and numerous blazing fires at 
night. The planting of rice and cassada is then left to the women, to 
whom all further labor is resigned until the crops are safely stored in 
their houses. The men then betake themselves to their usual pursuits 
and amusements. They often seek employment among the colonists, 
in order to get a suppfy of tobacco and cloth for themselves, and beads 
for the women. When they have anything to sell in the colon}^, the 
women, with their children strapped to their backs, carry the articles 
on their heads, while their lordly husbands walk on before, each bear- 
ing a knife or a gun. 

The children, soon after their birth, are exposed naked to the rays 
of the sun, and the manner in which they are nursed is anything but 
gentle; but they are very healthy, and few die in infancy. The boys, 
eleven or twelve years old, completely throw off all maternal restraint, 
deeming it unmanly to be longer controlled by a woman. Nothing 
will make a native bdy in the service of the colonists run away sooner 
than being struck by a female. 

Their mechanical and agricultural implements are exceedingly sim- 
ple — -the latter being merely a hatchet for the men to cut down the 
bushes and trees ; and a small hoe, three inches broad, for the woman 
to plant the rice with, which, when ripe, is cut down with a common 
knife. They cook rice admirably, and all their peculiar dishes are 
highly seasoned with pepper. They live principally on vegetables, 
but are fond of animal food — snakes, guanas, and monke3^s being among 
their highest luxuries ; and they are accused of not being averse to cats 
and dogs. Smoking and drinking palm wine (and rum, when it can be 
had) is the surmmim honum of their existence. They rarely, however, 
drink to excess; but are fond of games of hazard, which they play with 
large beans. They do not gamble, however, to the extent cf some 
tribes in the interior, wlio first stake one limb, and then another, until 
the whole body is forfeit, and the unsuccessful player becomes the 
slave of his antagonist. 

B}^ the labor of the missionaries a syllabic alphabet has been con- 
structed for the Bassa language, which, although harsh, is metaphorical; 
the figures being drawn from natural objects. It is believed that there 
exists a similarity of construction, and no great disparity in the ele- 
mentary sounds of the languages of the tribes extending from the Gal- 
linas to Cape Palmas. Such alphabets, therefore, may prove exten- 
sively and eminently useful. 

The coast from Bassa Cove to Sinou presents the same monotonous 
features as that to windward, only interrupted at New Cess river, and 
between Trade Town and Little Culloh river, where there are two 
elevations near the coast, of which "Highland Peak," the southern- 
most, is 240 feet high; directly back of it is the "Tobacco" mountain, 
880 feet; the " Nipple," 218 feet high; and abreast of it, the "Pobamo 
rock," directly upon the coast. 

The light winds and smooth sea which prevail, with the smoke on 
shore and the mist to seaward, would render sailing along the coast 



38 



H. Doc. 1. 



exceedingly tedious, if the scene were not enlivened by numerous 
canoes which put off from the shore, six to eight miles distant, and, 
paddling alongside, in noisy competition seek to gratify curiosity, or 
dispose of fish, fruit, and fowls, for bread, pork, tobacco, and any kind 
of clothing. These canoes usually contain from two to four men each, 
squatted upon their hams, with their feet behind them, and nearly every 
one naked; the best attired having only a kerchief about the loins, and 
an old straw hat upon the head. 

So much are these people at home in the waftr, that when a canoe 
upsets, the crew, with as much nonchalance as if it were in a shallow 
stream, right it, and taking hold of each end, sway it to and fro length- 
wise, until the water is nearly all swashed out; two of them, alternately, 
rather roll than clamber in, and, seated at each end, jerk their legs to 
and fro rapidly along the bottom; and thus, with the flat of their feet, 
bail it perfectly dry. 

One of this amphibious race came on board while we were sailing 
down the coast, and left his companion, a mere lad, in the canoe, 
which was made fast to the ship. We were moving so rapidly through 
the water that the tow-line parted with the straiti, and the canoe, pro- 
pelled only by one paddle, could not keep up with us. The man who 
had left her was on the poop, and, after regarding for a few moments 
the ineffectual efforts of his companion, he made a single ejaculation, 
walked to the gangway, descended the side, and letting himself into 
the water, swam to his canoe. 

The people along the coast, protected, as they imagine, by their 
gree-grees, which they purchase from their priests, have no fear of 
sharks; and it is certain that this voracious fish gives preference to the 
flesh of a white man. Repeatedly a boat has been capsized con- 
taining but one white man among its crew ; and yet that man has been 
singled out and destroyed, while the rest were not even molested. 
The escape of the native may be owing to the peculiar mode in which 
he swims — a mode which appears ungraceful to the beholder, but may 
prove the safeguard of the swimmer. I have noticed that this people 
swim overhanded, with their bodies parallel to the surface of the 
water, which they splash by the movement of their hands and feet; 
but my observation has been limited both as to time and space, and it 
may be that it is to the odor of the skin, or a difference in the taste of 
the blood, that the preference of the shark is to be attributed. 

Between the St. John's and the Sinon river there are several streams 
coming down from the interior, but all are shallow and mostly difficult 
of access. First, the " New Cess," where was the last slave mart be- 
tween Cape Mount and Cape Palmas. There are here masses of 
sienite upon the beach and a range of hills stretching inland. Next, 
the "Little Culloh," south of the highland peak, and accessible to 
boats in fair weather, and with a good landing just below it. Then 
follows the " Grand Culloh" river, with its entrance barred up at this 
season; and the " Tembo," which has a good landing on its southern 
beach ; " Sestos" river, where a slave factory was long established ; 
the " New" river, coming in by " Diabolito rock;" the "Broom" river, 
at the mouth of which is Bahyah rock, sixty feet above the sea ; and the 



H. Doc. 1. 



39 



" Sangwin" and the " Grand Bouton" rivers, the latter having a bluff 
260 feet on its southern shore, and the " Yulee" shoal before it. 

There are many rivulets besides these streams, all pouring down, 
even in this dry season, immense volumes of water, but none of them 
admitting vessels drawing more than six feet water, except the " San- 
gwin," which at the flood has upwards often feet water upon its bar, 
within which it is spread out and is navigable but for a short distance. 

From the Sangwin to Nifou is the Kroo country, inhabited by an 
interesting race. The extent of their territory inland is not accurately 
known, but supposed not to exceed twenty miles, as they have no 
towns, except upon the coast. The general aspect of the country is 
champagne, and it is densely wooded, but mostly free from marshes. 
Its chief vegetable productions are rice, cassada, yams, and plantains. 
The rice which it produces is valued by traders along the coast for its 
superior whiteness. The rivers which run through it are not large, 
and do not probably rise at any great distance from the coast, although 
the Krooman, whose ideas of distance are far from exact, represent 
them as extending a great way inland. They are full of banks and 
shoals, which obstruct navigation. 

In the Kroo country there are but five towns : " Little Kroo," the 
northernmost; " Settr a Kroo," the chief town Kroo Bah," " Nana- 
kroo," and " Willstown." A few small villages, inhabited by strangers 
or slaves, are said to be scattered over the intermediate space, and at 
a greater distance from the shore, for the purpose of cultivating the 
land. This small district is considered more populous than any along 
the coast. The inhabitants are employed by all the vessels trading 
between Cape Mesurado and Cape Palmas as factors, interpreters, 
and. as auxiliaries to the crews, to save them from exposure in boats. 
The Kroomen who thus employ themselves are seldom less than fif- 
teen or more than forty 3^ears of age. Those who remain at home are 
chiefly employed in agriculture and a few in fishing. They rear also a 
few cattle. The land seems to form a common stock, and not to de- 
scend by inheritance. Each man settles where he pleases, and the 
labor is performed chiefly by the women, assisted b}^ domestic slaves. 

The commerce of the Kroomen is carried on principally by barter, 
and the articles in greatest demand among them are leaf-tobacco, cot- 
ton cloth, handkerchiefs, fire-arms, knives, and bar-iron. The last 
they manufacture into implements of husbandry. For these articles 
they exchange palm-oil, a little ivory and rice, and occasionally supply 
ships with fire-wood, plantains, cassada, and sometimes with bullocks. 
They paddle in very small canoes to ships eight or ten miles from the 
shore, with not more of these articles than will procure for them a few 
leaves of tobacco — counting their toil and hazard as nothmg. Their 
chief article of barter, however, is their labor to captains and traders on 
the coast. This is the source from whence they derive by far the 
greater portion of their miported commodities. They have long been 
the exclusive intermediate dealers between vessels trading on this part 
of the coast and the people of the interior ; and while the slave trade 
flourished, it employed a great many hands. Since the abolition of 
that trade, they have sought other lines of service; and at Sierra Leone, 
350 miles to the north, there were 800 of them employed in one year. 



40 



H. Doc. L 



The form of their government is monarchical ; but the old merC^—lhe 
aristocracy of the country — possess considerable influence, and the 
power of the monarch is small, except when supported by them. Each 
town has a chief, who is designated as king to strangers ; but there is 
one chief who is considered superior, and rules over the whole. The 
power, however, of the superior chief is very great in his own district, 
and the office, it is probable, is hereditar}^ At the same time the 
children of the greater chiefs work as laborers in clearing the groundy 
while they are young men, in exactly the same manner as the lowest 
of the people ; nor are they to be distinguished on ordinary occasions 
by their attire, or by superior respect being paid to them. 

With respect to the principal monarch, his power is seldom exer- 
cised ; nnd instead of being the source of all authority, the fountain of 
justice, the original proprietor and ultimate heir to all the land, he is 
in general no more than the last referee in important disputes, and the 
person in whose name business wdth other tribes or countries is trans- 
acted. A general war must be carried on in his name, but independent 
of the concurring voice of those headmen who possess the greatest 
share of talent and activity. His power is probably far less than that 
of some of his subordinate chiefs. This remark applies not only to the 
Kroomen, but to all the African tribes not of the Mohammedan faith. 

A king usually names a vice- king, who, on the death of the former, 
succeeds him in sovereign authority. A mourning cry of several days' 
continuance takes place on the death of a king, during which time the 
succession is arranged. The body of a deceased king must be interred 
with the honors due to his rank before his successor can be recognised. 

o 

The possession of the bod}^ is therefore the first thing aimed at by 
competitors for the throne. 

Wars are not frequent among them; but the inhabitants of the dif- 
ferent towns sometimes have very serious quarrels. When at war, all 
Kroomen who are made prisoners are released on the payment of a 
ransom. They neither kill nor sell them. Prisoners of other tribes 
are enslaved or put to death. The submission of Kroomen to their 
superiors is carried so far, that, if one of the foremen commit a theft, 
the rest will run any risk, and resist every temptation of reward, rather 
than reveal it; and if there be no other mode of saving their superior 
from disgrace and punishment, they will assume the crime, and suffer 
its penalty. Among themselves, theft is punished by whipping. The 
punishment of adultery is by fine. Murder may be punished with 
death, but it, also, may be atoned for by a pecuniary fine. Witchcraft 
is always punished capitally; but instances of it are rare. 

Among Kroomen no offence is punishable with slavery, nor is any 
Krooman permitted to be sold on any account whatever ; but, while 
the slave trade continued, they were notoiious for kidnapping and sell- 
ing the Bushmen, who came down to the coast for the purpose of trade. 

Kroomen are seldom very tall; but they are well made, muscular, 
vigorous, and active. They w^ear no clothes, except a piece of cloth 
or a kerchief wrapped around their loins ; but they are fond of ob- 
taining hats and old woollen jackets, which they are allowed to wear 
in their own country in the rainy season. They are extremely, sensible 
to cold during this season, but never appear to suffer from the heat. 



H. Doc. 1. 



41 



They are generally gay and cheerful in their dispositions, and frequently 
talkative and noisy, often evincing much talent for mimicry. They 
seldom speak Enghsh well, and they understand it but imperfectly. 
The}^ are very fond of adopting what man-of-war sailors call "pursers' 
names," such as " pipe of tobacco," "bottle of beer," "tin pot," "pea 
soup," half dollar," " after breakfast," &c. They are very sensitive; 
and, if harsh and angry expressions are used towards them, become 
sulky and intractable. But they will bear even a sharp blow, if their 
neghgence deserves it, provided it seems to be given more in jest than 
in earnest. 

In their general conduct, they are more deliberate than impetuous ; 
and, although not a brave race, they are less cow^ardly than the tribes 
immediately above and below them. 

Among themselves they are exceedingly hospitable ; and w^hen ab- 
sent from their countr}^ those w^ho are unemployed are supported by 
those who are receiving wages. In their expenditures they are rigid 
economists, a little tobacco being the only luxur}^ which they allow them- 
selves; in every other respect, thev are content with the bare neces- 
saries of life. A small quantity of ship-biscuit was the onl}^ article 
of provisions taken by those who accompanied me in my boat expe- 
ditions. Although fond of rum, they never buy it, and never drink to 
excess when it is given to them; and their clothing on board of a man- 
of-war consists onh^ of a flannel shirt and drawers, and a straw hat. 
On board of trading vessels the}" wear their shore attire, and the cost 
of their clothing is insignificant. 

The residue of their gains is converted into such goods as are most 
valuable in their own country. In eighteen months or two years a suf- 
ficient stock has been collected, and the Krooman returns home with 
his wealth. A certain portion is given to the head man of the town ; 
all his relations and friends partake of his bounty, if there be but a 
leaf of tobacco for each; and his mother, if living, has a handsome 
present. All this is done in order "to get him a good name;" what 
remains is delivered to his father "to buy him a wdfe." One so liberal 
does not long want a partner. The father obtains a wife for him; and, 
after a few months of ease and indulgence, he sets off afresh to different 
parts of the coast, from Sierra Leone to Fernando Po, to get more 
mone}^ By this time he is proud of being acquainted with "white 
man's fashions," and takes w^ith him some raw, inexperienced young- 
sters, whom he initiates into his profession, taking no small portion of 
the w^ages of the eleves for his trouble. In due time his coffers are re- 
plenished; he returns home, confirms his former character for liberal- 
it\^ and gives the residue of his wealth to his father " to get him another 
wife." In this wa}' he proceeds for ten or twelve j^ears, or more, in- 
creasing the number of his wives, and establishing a great character 
among his countrymen ; but scarcely a particle of his earnings, ex- 
cept In the article of wives, is at any time applied to his own use. 

A Krooman sometimes presents his favorite wife with one of his front 
teeth, which he has extracted for the purpose; and he mourns for a 
departed friend by shaving all the hair from the back or one side of 
his head. 



42 



H. Doc. 1. 



The name "Krooman " is said to be a corruption of the term "crew- 
men," because of their general employment among vessels visiting the 
African coast. Among this people polygamy exists universally, and 
slavery to some extent ; although slaves are bought only from other 
tribes, and are never sold to foreigners, or to an}^ person out of their 
own tribe. Their houses are built of a square form, of sticks, covered 
with bamboo plaited, and the roof of leaf thatch ; and the floor is of 
plaited bamboo, raised eighteen inches on cross-pieces ; and the door 
and loft above are not sufficiently high to permit an adult to enter with- 
out stooping, or to stand erect. There are, generally, three rooms in 
each house, separated by partitions of plaited bamboo. The fire-place 
is made principally of hard clay, near one corner of the house, where 
is the only window, which serves both to admit light and open a pas- 
sage for the smoke. The smoke penetrates the interstices of the loft 
above and preserves the nee, which would otherwise be destroyed by 
insects. 

Their furniture consists, mostly, of a few cooking utensils ; the floor 
answers for bed, table, and chairs; and their pillow is a round stick of 
wood. Their dress is a piece of cloth wrapped about the loins. Their 
devotions are, superstitiously gazing on the moon, and a feast on the 
first day of the moon, among the head men, and devotional walks in a 
thicket called the "devil's bush;" and they depend on amulets or 
gree-grees for protection and defence. The latter are purchased from 
the gree-gree doclors, for diflferent sums of money, according to the 
purposes for which they are designed. These amulets are sheep's 
horns, or small pockets, filled with herbs and palm-oil and dirt, made 
by the conjurer or doctor. These doctors are a distinct class of men, 
who come nito the profession hereditarily — the heads of the families 
teaching their children the craft. The children destined to this pro- 
fession enter early upon their studies under some doctor — sometimes 
as early as seven or eight years of age — and are distinguished by a 
pecuhar straw dress. 

These doctors profess a knowledge of herbs and roots, and to have 
the means of curing diseases, and are called to relieve the sick and 
afllicted ; but their greatest reputation is derived from their imagined 
superaatural knowledge. The Kroo people consider death and sickness 
as caused by witchcraft, and they employ and rely upon the doctors to 
point out the person who has, by witchcraft, caused these evils. The 
person who is designated asguilty of the crime of witchcraft is arrested 
by the soldier king, and condemned to the ordeal of sassy-wood. The 
bark of the sassy-wood is powerfully narcotic, and a strong decoction 
of this the person condemned is forced to drink ; and after he has drunk 
it he walks to and fro, exclaiming, "Am I a witch?" "Am I a witch?" 
while one of the executioners walks behind him replying, "You are a 
witch," "You are a witch," and thus continues until he either throws 
off' the poison from his stomach, when he is pronounced innocent, or it 
operates as a cathartic, Avhen he is declared guilty, and compelled to 
take more of the decoction, and is subjected to other cruelties which 
cause his speedy death. When pronounced innocent, there is great joy 
and triumph among the friends of the accused, who march through 
the town dancing, singing, and firing guns, and the conjurer resigns his 



H. Doc. 1. 



43 



fee to those who emplo3'ed him. These shocking scenes of the ordeal 
by sass5^-wood were of ahuost daily occurrence in former times, but 
have been much less frequent since the establishment of missions among 
them. Sometimes this sassy-wood ordeal is used to decide questions 
between individuals ; and they voluntarily drink it to prove and settle 
some disputed points. It is one of the most prevalent and cruel of 
x\frican superstitions, and is practised among nearly all, if not all, the 
tribes of Africa. 

The laws of the Kroo people form a body of custom.s, handed down 
by tradition from past generations, interpreted and enforced by the gen- 
eral council, who also enact occasional speciailaws, which are generally 
suggested or dictated by the doctor or conjurer. The laws are imperfect, 
inconsistent, and unfair. If one man loses anj^thing and accuses an- 
other of having stolen it, the accused is required to drink sassy- wood 
water to prove his innocence. The ordeal of sassy-wood is, therefore, 
a penalt}^ for almost all crimes, and exerts a powerful restraining in- 
fluence on the community. When the sassy-wood so affects the accused 
as to condemn him, his friends may buy him off from death for differ- 
ent sums of money, according to the wealth of the family accused; but 
few are thus saved, in consequence of the povert}^ of the friends of the 
accused, and because, if once rescued, he is liable to be re-accused for 
any trifling offence. The ordeal of sassy-wood is frequently made to 
decide points of honor, precisely like the custom of duelling in the 
United States. 

The leading motives of the Kroo people are sensuality and vanity. 
The men employed by vessels on the coast, and by traders as flictors 
on shore, are industrious ; but on the plantations, and in their towns, 
the mea are idle, and the women perform most of the labor. The men 
build the houses and clear the plantations ; but the women plant, 
watch, cultivate, and gather and beat the rice, and cut and bring the 
wood, and perform all the labor about the house ; and especially those 
who are old and incapable of other labor, are constantly and indus- 
triously engaged in making salt, by boihng down sea-water. Salt is a 
principal article of trade with the interior tribes. 

The women seldom eat with the men, except a man's head or favor- 
ite wife, who superintends the cooking, and first tastes the food before 
he partakes of it. 

The system of polygamy gives rise to jealousies and many quarrels 
among the women. All lawful wives are purchased when children, 
and, on attaining a suitable age, are taken to thek husbands. Besides 
these there is a class of w^omen who go and live with any man they 
choose, and leave him for any other at pleasure. When one or more 
of these leave a man and run to another, the one to whom they resort 
fires guns, and his lawful wives rejoice with him; because they regard 
it as adding importance to their husband, and it relieves them from a 
portion of their labor. There appears to be a strong aflfection between 
parents and children, and brothers and sisters; but polygamy doubtless 
lessens the affection between husbands and wives. 

Kroom^n are passionate, but cowaruty ; fond of war and hunting, 
but have little skill in either. When specially intrusted w^ith property 
they may be expected to be faithful ; but if they can slyly steal, they 



44 



H. Doc. 1. 



are apt to do it ; and in case one of their number informs against the 
thief, it is the law that the informer shall pay for the stolen property. 

With respect to intellectual improvement, the condition of the Kroo- 
men may be considered as stationary. It is universally admitted, that 
if a Krooman were to learn to read and write he would be put to death 
immediately. Distinction, respect, power among his own countrymen, 
as soon as age permits it, are the high objects of each one's ambition. 
He is trained up in the habit of looking forward to these as to all that 
is honorable or desirable. His life is spent in seeking them by the only 
means which the customs of his countr}^ allow ; and when possessed 
of them, every exertion is used to train others in the same ways, in or- 
der that he may keep and enjoy what he has acquired with so much 
labor. All this is supported by superstition ; and under the cloak of 
superstition are cruelty and injustice. Who shall break through these 
shackles ? Premiums have been proposed to Kroomen if the}^ would 
settle at Sierra Leone, or emigrate to the West Indies; but take away 
from them their desire of respect and distinction in their own country, 
and they are deprived of every motive for that industry and self-denial 
which procures for them, at present, a preference over other nations. 

The indifference of Kroomen to the arts and comforts of the whites 
would make one regard them as a very dull race of men. A Kroo- 
man and a Mandingo were shown an English clock. It was a new thing 
to both of them. The Krooman eyed it attentively for about a minute, 
but with an unmoved countenance, and then walked away to look at 
something else, without saying a word. The Mandingo could not suffi- 
ciently admire the equal and constant motion of the pendulum; his at- 
tention was repeatedly drawn to it ; he made all possible inquiries as 
to the cause of its motion ; he renewed the subject next morning, and 
could hardly be persuaded that the pendulum had continued to "walk," 
as he called it, all night. In general the case is nearly the same. 
Kroomen have little or no curiosity about things which are of no use 
in their own country ; they are careless about our comforts and luxu- 
ries ; none of them have been rendered necessary })y habit, and they 
would often be inconsistent with the principal objects of their pursuits. 
But they are sufficiently acute and observant when occasion calls their 
minds into action. 

They have not the use of letters, and will not permit their children 
to learn ; they talk miserably bad English ; and, living by daily labor, 
which is paid for in goods, they have no occasion for manufactures of 
their own. They have, therefore, but few opportunities of displaying 
peculiar talent. They make their own canoes, several of their imple- 
ments of agriculture, &c., and some trifling musical instruments ; and 
they sometimes plead in their own defence with much art. The evi- 
dence against one examined on a charge of theft was so strong, that 
few men would have had the boldness to deny it. The culprit, how- 
ever, began a long speech with expressing his sorrow that the judge 
was not born a Krooman, and proceeded to enlarge on the superior 
ability he would, in that case, have possessed to distinguish between 
truth and falsehood in all cases wherein Kroomen were concerned, not 
orgetting the security against deception which he might possibly have 
obtained by means of those fetishes of which white men know not the 



H. Doc. 1. 



45 



value nor the use. Had the judge possessed but these advantages, he 
would have known, he argued, how mach more safely he might rely on 
ids veracity than on all the evidence produced against him, although it 
was backed by the unfortunate circumstance of the stolen goods being 
found in his possession. 

A Krooman will never sell a Krooman, or allow him to be sold by 
others, if he can prevent it. Partly from their general usefulness on 
the coast, partly from the probability that the sale of a Krooman would 
be severely revenged, they have gone about everywhere in slave-ships 
and to slave factories, and were active agents in the slave trade, with- 
out any more apprehension of being sold themselves than if they were 
white men. At home their numbers make them formidable to their 
neighbors, and they seldom seem to be engaged in war but when great 
divisions exist among themselves ; few, therefore, are ever sold. 

Nearly all the vowels of their language are pronounced very short ; 
the consonant indistinct, with occasionally a strong nasal sound, par- 
ticularly in the numbers two and three ; an apostrophe after a word 
marking that short breaking off of a sound (without dwelling on the last 
letter or connecting it smoothly with the first letter of the next word) 
which is common in many languages on the coast. 

The country from Cape Mount to Cape Palmas is an inhabited strip 
along the seacoast, with a wooded desert behind it, which separates it 
from the more populous interior, and the coast tribes are ingenious and 
persevering in their endeavors to obstruct the intercourse of strangers 
with those residing inland. 

As much by drifting as by sailing we reached Sinou, where a Libe- 
rian schooner and a square-rigged vessel were at anchor; and one of 
the latter was in sight, bearing down from the north. The anchorage 
is an exposed one for large vessels, but smaller ones find a partial 
shelter from the southwest wind, and its accompanying heavy sea, 
behind Bloobarre Point. The Sinou, a small but placid river, was 
selected about eighteen years ago by colonists from Mississippi and 
Louisiana, with a few from South Carolina, who, after acchmating at 
Monrovia, founded the town of Greenville on the right bank, just above 
the river's mouth. 

From the sea this settlement presents an attractive appearance. 
Directly abreast of it the shore curves inwards, and then stretches to 
the north, a long line of yellow beach, fringed with a deep forest. To 
the south are two shallow bays, separated from each other by project- 
ing crags of ferruginous rock, the curved beach of sand bordered like 
that of the northern shore. At the northwest extremity of the north- 
ernmost bay is the promontory of Bloobarre, a broad, high rock, its 
surface bare and smooth to the summit, which is covered with luxuriant 
foliage. At the inland base of the promontory are the brown, conical 
huts of the Bloobarre tribe. Outwards, in a line with the promontor}'-, 
and at half a cable's length distance from it, is a ledge of detached rocks, 
washed smooth by the surf, which at low water are covered with 
sea-gulls ; and between the two is the bar. 

Immediately after crossing the latter, the river, which is about sixty 
yards wide, opens short to the right, round the bluff promontory, and 
in fifty yards turns sharp to the left by a low, sandy point, immediately 



46 



H. Doc. 1. 



opposite to which, near the southern shore, are two smooth, rocky 
islets — the nearest one bare, the farthest capped with vegetation — pre- 
senting a fine contrast between the ii'on-tinted rock and the rich green 
upon its summit. Ascending the river there is a low, sandy peninsula 
on the left, which becomes wider and more elevated until reaching 
the settlement half a mile distant. 

The opposite bank is high, with several abrupt patches of ferrugi- 
nous rock. Greenville faces the sea, and the river flows behind it. It 
is regularly laid out, and Mississippi avenue, with a row of dwellings 
on one side and open to the sea on the other, is a delightful prome- 
nade. The houses I considered by far the neatest I had seen — two of 
them were quite handsome tw^o-story ones ; and the gardens were in 
better condition than those of Monrovia. There are about sixty houses 
and between three and four hundred inhabitants in the settlement. 
The churches are the least reputable features of the place ; but, al- 
though unprepossessing in their exterior, their congregations were 
creditable in costume and deportment. My visit was at the time of 
the annual meeting of the Baptist association, and the members of that 
persuasion thronging into the settlement gave it quite a lively appear- 
ance. 

There are a number of mechanics in Greenville, particularly carpen- 
ters, and in the outskirts of the town I saw a steam saw-mill, to which 
lumber was rafted from the river by an artificial canal. The Bloobarre 
district, opposite to the settlement, is very properly described by the 
Rev. Mr. Gurley as high, rich, and inviting, and he judiciously points 
out the summit of the promontory as an eligible site for a light-house. 

Above Greenville were founded the settlements of Rossville and 
Readville ; but the country around them, although slightly rolhng, is 
subject to inundation. The soil is composed of stiff clay overlaid with 
vegetable mould, excepting the river bottoms, which are made up from 
the deposites of annual inundations. Rice is the principal growth 
relied upon as an article of food; bat, like the settlements on the Junk 
and the St. Joim's, the colonists do not cultivate sufficient for their own 
consumption. A great quantity is, however, raised by the natives ; 
and such is the productiveness of the soil, that slave vessels, when 
that baleful traffic w^as at its height, resorted to the Sinou to purchase 
their stores of rice. The principal article of export at present is palm- 
oil; but much attention is now being paid to the culture of the coffee- 
plant, which, in beauty and fragrance of foliage and flower, equals the 
orange tree, and far surpasses it in the utility of its fruit. Its deep- 
green leaves and snow-white blossoms would remind one of the orange, 
if its delicious perfume, borne on the wind, had not anticipated the 
comparison. 

The river, although deep within the bar, is navigable only seventeen 
miles to the falls, beyond which it runs shallow and obstructed, through 
the same belt of wilderness which lies behind the colony inland 
throughout its entire length, and constitutes the great barrier to the 
more speedy improvement of settlements along the coast, and the 
civilization and conversion of the natives in the interior. The forest is 
dense beyond conception. The crowded branches of the trees, twisted 
and interlaced, each bearing its full crop of foliage, form one wide 



H. Doc. 1. 



47 



canopy, which the sun looks upon but cannot penetrate ; while beneath, 
shrubs and climbing plants weave themselves into tangled and im- 
penetrable thickets. The timber of many varieties is harder and heavier 
than any in the United States, the live oak excepted, and much of it, 
even when seasoned, will not float in water. There are also others, 
corresponding to our pine in hghtness; and whether for houses, ships, 
or furniture, the mechanic need never be at a loss for a selection. 
The caoutchouc or India-rubber tree grows also large and abundant 
here; its stems, branches, and leaves emitting copiously the viscous 
fluid which is elsewhere so profitable an article of commerce. 

The domesticated cattle are small in size, but there is a large wild 
breed, having short horns, with hides nearly destitute of hair. There 
are many deer in the forest, and leopards are occasionally seen. In 
consequence of the dense undergrowth near the coast, the range of the 
elephant is quite far in the interior. A good deal of ivory is from time 
to time brought down; and from the inequahty of many of the tusks, it 
may be inferred that more elephants die of disease than are killed by 
the natives. Lizards and chameleons are common; but it is averred 
that serpents are rarely, and venomous ones very rarely, seen. But 
three kinds are, I believe, known to the colonists; and although the 
natives are unquestionably acquainted with others their accounts, are 
confused and unintelligible. 

This section of country is thinly inhabited by a mild and inoffensive 
race, who are fond of agriculture, and represented as the most indus- 
trious of any on the coast, but as very filthy and disgusting in their 
habits. They form one of the divisions of the Great Bassa tribe. 
Through the head man of the principal village on the Sinou I met 
three natives, who represented themselves as coming from a country 
ten days' journey inland. A day's journey in Africa is about twenty- 
five miles ; but as the natives never clear obstructions from their path, 
making always a detour to pass them, and even where there are no ob- 
stacles preferring a zigzag road to a direct one, their country cannot be 
more than 150 miies from Greenville ; but whether directly inland, or 
diagonal with the coast, I could not ascertain. From the density of the 
forest through which they travelled, they took no notice of the bearing 
of the sun at various times of the day, and could give no other clue 
than that they came from the highlands to the sea. 

From their account, I inferred that their country is not a mountain- 
ous one. They represented the climate as but little colder than that 
of the coast; and their representation was confirmed by the scantiness 
of their attire, being a single cloth about the loins, worn pendant in- 
stead of being passed in and out between the legs. Their country 
abounds, they said, with goats, sheep, and cattle, and the two first 
would have supphed them with skins for garments if the climate were 
a cold one On the other hand, they stated that they possessed a breed 
of dogs with long hair, whereas the few to be seen along the coast are 
almost devoid of any hair whatever. They have neither crocodiles 
nor horses, and little camwood or ivory, but a great deal of palm-oil. 
The nut-bearing palm-tree is known to be confined to the seaboard, 
and the crocodile delights in the muddy deposites of wide-spread estu- 
aries; but the camwood does not grow, and the elephant is never found 



48 



H. Doc. 1 



on soil which, subject to inundation, cannot sustain his enormous weight. 
I can only reconcile these conflicting accounts by the conclusion that, 
these men came from a country just beyond the belt of forest between 
the coast and the interior, and not more than 70 or 80 miles in a direct 
line from the sea. They were unquestionably Bushmen, and, excepting 
some Arabs of the desert, the wildest and shyest beings I have ever 
seen. They were under the medium stature, but exceedingly broad- 
chested and muscular. Their bodies were long, their legs unnaturally 
short, and their whole appearance indicated great strength combined 
with extraordinary activity. 

From a single interview, although a prolonged one, it would be un- 
wise to form a decided opinion ; but, the impression left on my mind 
was, that with equal native shrewdness, they evinced less duplicity 
than characterizes the tribes along the coast. From Tolon, themselves, 
they named the following tribes as inhabiting the intermediate country, 
commencing with the seacoast : " Twah," " Nenvoo," " Ghepoh," 
"Tygepoh," "Drapoh," "Nafou," "Sapoh," "Cabadeh," "Tatroo." 
Notwithstanding their uncouth arid savage appearance, these men, 
after their first shyness wore off, exhibited much social feeling, and a 
marked love of humor. 

The Sinou is navigable to as great a distance as the St. Paul's, but 
its banks are less thickly settled, and there is less water on its bar; 
but the soil is fertile, and the heaviest vessels built for the coasting 
trade can enter the river with facility. The first settlers were unques- 
tionably energetic and industrious; and from the aspect of Greenville, 
I should judge that there has been no great relaxation. There is 
throughout the place a pleasing aspect of prosperity, and I consider it 
the prettiest settlement 1 have seen in Africa. 

The rivers "Dehvoeh," " Coroo," and "Teeroroah," are the princi- 
pal streams flowing into the Atlantic between the Sinou and the Gar- 
raw ay, the southern line of the republic. The coast preserves its low, 
monotonous character, only throwing up a sufficient number of de- 
tached elevations to prevent its being classified as one unbroken level. 
The first of these interruptions is a solitary hill abreast of Kroo rock, 
about ten miles below Sinou. Twelve miles further, south of the Co- 
roo, are three elevations, one of them 260 feet in height. Twenty 
miles beyond is a hill just within Sesters Point, 210 feet high ; and in 
a line with it, a short distance inland, is a range commencing at Flat 
Hill, and becoming mountainous as it stretches mto the interior; and in 
a northeast direction from it, the Sugar Loaf shows isolated 730 feet in 
height. At New Sesters was the last slave factory betv/een Cape 
Mount and Cape Palmas. South of Grand Sesters is Table Hill, 190 
feet high near the shore, with the Paps, two rounded summits, a few 
miles inland ; and from thence to the Garraway, the southern boundary 
of the republic, are five or six hillocks, mostly contiguous to the shore. 

The imports of the Republic of Liberia, on which duties were paid 
for the year ending September 30, 1851, amounted to $166,000. The 
exports, of which no account is kept, may be safely estimated at a 
much larger sum, as along the entire coast commerce increases rapidly. 

From the Garraway to Cape Palmas is the Atlantic coast of territory 
settled by the Mar3dand Colonization Society. At the latter point the 



H. Doc. 1. 



49 



coast line tends abruptly to the east, along the Gulf of Guinea, as far 
as Cape Lahore. Between the Garraway and the first named Cape, 
besides the hill of Kabla, 290 feet high, near the shore, there are but 
three elevations visible from the sea, of which Flat Mountain is 1,090 
feet in height; all else is level forest. 

Cape Palmas is a bold promontory, in a marked geographical posi- 
tion, where the Atlantic suddenly swerves to the left and forms the Gulf 
of Guinea. From the current which sweeps into the gulf along the 
coast, all vessels bound in that direction avail themselves of it and pass 
within sight of the Cape, which must eventually attain great commer- 
cial importance. The extremity of the Cape is crowned with a light- 
house, and is separated from the main land by the Hoffman river, 
which has from three to seven feet water upon its bar, and is navigable 
but a short distance from its mouth. The fine headland, the scattering 
houses upon its summit, the rocky islet on one side, and on the other, 
across the river, the wide extent of country, part forest and part prairie, 
present, from the anchorage, a beautiful appearance. The rocky islet, 
formerly used by the natives as a receptacle for their dead, is now 
called Russworm's island, in honor of the first colored governor of the 
colony. It is small and irregular in its outlines, the chafing of the sea 
having worn deep fissures in its sides. Between it and the peninsula 
is a narrow channel, practicable only for boats. Back of the Cape are 
seen houses of colonists, and the conical peaks of native huts, which, 
from the sea, appear to be confusedly intermingled. In the distance, 
shooting up from the plain, or overtopping the woodland, are many 
detached hills, one of them to the north (Mount Vaughan) rendered con- 
spicuous by the buildings of an Episcopal mission. 

On visiting the shore we pulled b}^ a snug cove, with rocky extremi- 
ties, but a smooth sandy beach between, just within the pitch of the 
Cape, and, crossing the bar without difficulty, landed at a small stone 
wharf just within the river's mouth. Immediately at the head of the 
wharf is a large stone warehouse, from whence a good winding road 
leads to the summit. On this broad elevated platform are the colonial 
settlements of Harper and Latrobe, with two native villages between 
them. The village of Harper consists of one wide street, with the gov- 
ernment house, the custom-house, a number of private dwellings, and 
at its northern extremity the light-house, besides a large stone building 
under construction, intended as an orphan asylum. 

From this settlement a broad McAdamized road leads by the na- 
tive villages, through Latrobe, to Mount Tubman, three miles distant. 
Latrobe consists of a number of small farms, with the dwellings neatly 
enclosed, stretching some distance on both sides of the road. The first 
native village, within which is the royal residence of the king, contains 
about 200 thatched huts and 1,000 inhabitants : the second one, about 
half a mile from it, below the hill and nearer to the river, has about 300 
inhabitants. The Grebo tribe, to which they belong, owns the territory 
from Fish town to the Cavally river, but are almost wholly confined to 
the seacoast, their territory being about thirty miles in length, by six 
to eight inland. 

Turning aside from the road, by far the best I have seen in Liberia, 
I entered one of the largest huts of the principal village. The walls 
4 



60 



H. Doc. 1. 



were plastered inside and out, and the thatched roof projected all round, 
two feet beyond them. There were three low doors, one in front and 
one on each side. Suspended to the wall, opposite to the front entrance, 
were from forty to fifty white wash-hand- basins, and before them, on 
the mud floor, were eight or ten large stone jars. According to the quan- 
tity of crockery thus exhibited, is the estimated wealth of the proprie- 
tor. A fire was burning on the floor between the two side-doors, and 
two piles of cut wood were suspended from the rafters, as a reserve 
store for wet weather. Over the fire was a frame lor rice in the ear, 
and many bunches, hung to the rafters, were designed for seed. In one 
part small beams were thrown across which supported a rude flooring, 
with a ladder to ascend to it, made to trice up and held by a hook. 
There were two men, one woman, and a child, in the hut, which was 
far more spacious within than one would suppose from its external ap- 
pearance. 

The natives seemed less sprightly and intelligent, and certainly, as 
far as costume can indicate it, are less civilized than any I have seen 
in immediate contact with the colonists. But there is said to be a slight 
improvement. Formerly, a narrow piece of cloth in front constituted 
the whole attire ; now, a corresponding piece is worn behind, but the 
appearance is disgusting. Yet even here fashion has its votaries, and 
none but the aristocracy can aspire to the color of the season. 

I likewise visited the Fetish House, which in its exterior presented no 
perceptible diflerence from the others. The idol, made of wood, was 
about fifteen inches high, a misshapen figure between that of a monkey 
and a man, with a small, dirty feather drooping from its head. It was 
fenced in on three sides, and in the enclosure were some tin pots and 
trumpery, all covered with dust. There Was a fire in the corner of the 
hut, and a woman, with a child in her arms, seated beside it. These 
people regard their Fetish as an evil spirit, whom in evil times they 
seek to propitiate. They have no regular time for worship. Some years 
back the last human sacrifice was offered. A man of this village, be- 
lieving it necessary to sprinkle human blood upon his Fetish, in order 
to avert some threatened calamity, employed another to kill a boy for 
him. But the employer was obliged to fly, and will be severely pun- 
ished by the tribe should he return. 

There are eleven new houses being built by the colonists, besides the 
Orphan Asylum and the Methodist church, and there was a great de- 
mand for building materials. In other repects there were few indica- 
tions of prosperity, and not many signs of trade perceptible to the 
eye of the observer ; yet the value of the imports last year was nearly 
$100,000, and of the exports upwards of $80,000. The trade of the 
colony with the interior is very injuriously affected by trading vessels, 
which, being driven from the coast of the republic by a rigid enforce- 
ment of its revenue laws, carry on their traffic along the shores of this 
colony almost within sight of Cape Palmas. 

On the road from Harper to Latrobe I met two ox-carts, drawn by 
two small oxen each — one of them belonging to the society, the other 
the property of an individual. I likewise saw a native mother feeding 
her child in a peculiar manner. The little thing was laid bet^weenher 
knees, face upward, and its feet towards her. With one hand the 



H. Doc. 1. 



51 



mother held it down, and with the other filled its mouth from time to 
time with soft boiled rice, which was smoking-liot. When the mouth 
was crammed full, she pinched the infant's nose until the rice was 
swallowed. They think that a child never gets sufficient nourish- 
ment from the breast, and that to thiive it cannot be stuffed too freely. 

There is here a public farm of sixteen acres, of which ten were in 
cultivation when I saw it, and the remainder was used as pasturage. 
There were some coffee-trees, and the cassada, sweet potatoes, plan- 
tains, and Indian corn, were in cultivation. The coffee-trees did not 
seem to flourish, and altogether the farm presented a less thrifty ap- 
pearance than it doubtless would have done had it been individual 
property. It is ever the case, that management by deputy will never 
compete with the superintending vigilance of the owner. I mean to 
cast no reflection on Dr. McGill, the colonial governor, whose time 
is engrossed by more pressing and important cares. 

In the two colonial settlements there are 122 voters and about 800 
inhabitants. I was there on an election day, and the place was quite 
lively. The people were in their best attire. The men gathered in 
groups near the building where the poll was held, while the women 
stood about in the shade, principall}^ near the stands, where some of 
their sex displayed, on long tables, cakes, fruit, etc., for sale. 

A short time ago it was unanimously decided to declare the independ- 
ence of the colony, and this day the voters were assembled to elect 
commissioners, to proceed to the United States and confer with the 
Maryland Colonization Society on the subject. At the same time, 
delegates were to be elected to a convention for forming a State con- 
stitution. This act, seemingly premature, is, I believe, the offspring of 
necessit3^ I am inclined to think so from what I see around me, and 
am convinced of it by the concurrence of the Society at home, whichin 
most respects has heretofore so wisely directed the a^ffairs of the colony. 
The election was conducted in a quiet and orderly manner, and I am 
satisfied that in its climate, soil, geographical position, and the general 
character of its settlers, this colony possesses the elements of undevel- 
oped prosperity. The settlement has heretofore been retarded in its 
growth by the number of emigrants sent out, who were either infirm 
in health, feeble from age, or indolent in their habits and of listless 
characters — too many recently emancipated from slavery, with no idea 
of freedom beyond exemption from labor. A better time is approach- 
ing ; and when the colony becomes an independent State, it will compete 
with its sister republic to the north, in the advantages it presents to the 
enterprising settler. 

In and around Cape Palmas, for four or five miles from the shore, 
the soil is a sandy prairie, but soon presents clay, covered with vegeta- 
ble mould ; and in the valleys between the clumps of hills, which are 
seen in every direction, is a rich alluvial soil, capa,ble of supporting an 
immense population. Among these valleys are found most of the na- 
tive villao;es. 

Just below the principal village is the grave of King Freeman, who 
was in life a warm friend of the colony. In a rude enclosure, just 
large enough to contain them, are two huts, and in one of them is the 
royal grave, unmarked by mound or tombstone. The broad-brimmed 



52 



H. Doc. 1. 



Straw hat of the deceased alone indicates the spot. Without the door 
of the hut are some old clothes torn into shreds, and many fragments 
of pottery. The former nre torn, and the latter broken, because the 
natives believe that the spirit of the departed can unite them at will, 
while in their dismembered condition they present no temptation to the 
living. The opening to the enclosure is never secured; it is directly 
beside the thoroughfare between the two villages, but seems neither to 
attract nor repel the people continually passing to and fro. Except the 
stranger, monkeys from the adjoining wood seem to be its only 
visitants ; and the latter visit it unmolested, for although this people are 
fond of them as food, and will destroy them elsewhere, they hold them 
sacred in a grave-yard. 

King Freeman did not, as is usual, name a successor. Great funeral 
honors were paid to his remains by the colonists, which so gratified the 
tribe that it was conceded that no one should be made to drink red 
water, except about half a dozen who were accused of "making witch 
for the king," and the privilege was granted to the colony of naming 
his successor. The one selected was Peroh-Nah (Yellow Will,) a stout ' 
mulatto, with a frank, intelligent countenance. 

The ordeal of sassy-wood may now be considered obsolete with 
that portion of the tribe in the immediate vicinity of the settlements; 
and ni some of the villages of the tribe labor is forbidden on the 
Sabbath ; but from what I could learn, compensation is expected for the 
lost day. 

The Grebo language is different from that of the Bassa's, although 
they have some affinity to each other. It has been reduced to a syste- 
matic form by the Rev. Mr. Wilson, and is used in the schools and 
religious exercises of the mission. The Grebo tribe is estimated at 
about twenty thousand, and they are represented as docile and indus- 
trious, but much addicted to thieving. The above named reverend 
gentleman, who resided for some years among them, states that although 
each tribe has its king, there is not a feature of royalty in the govern- 
ment : so different is it from the arbitrary despotism which prevails in 
certain parts of Africa, that it may be regarded as the purest specimen 
of republicanism to be found in the world. The people govern, and 
they govern en masse. All proceedings, whether legislative, judicial, 
or executive, are conducted by the people in a body, and the majority 
enact, abolish, suspend, and execute all laws whatever. No office is 
heredit iry, and there is nothing like caste. Kings, chiefs, men, women, 
and children, eat, drink, sleep, and mingle together in the common 
affairs of hfe with as little restraint as the herds of cattle which graze 
in their meadows. Kings think it no detraction from their dignity to 
perform the most irksome drudgery, and to labor side by side with their 
poorest subjects, provided there be no one to witness it who would 
probably deride them for it. In some respects the government is 
patriarchal. Each family in the male line keeps itself entirely distinct 
from the others ; and there is always one representative head, who is 
the guardian of the property and the protector of the rights of the 
family. When a family becomes too large to transact business without 
inconvenience, it is divided, and subordinate heads are appointed. 
These subordinate heads manage all their affairs separately, except in 



H. Doc. 1. 



5B 



matters of great moment. The head man of each family receives and 
holds all the money and other property of its different members. He 
is accountable, however, for the disbursements of the common stock. 
He is required to purchase wives for the young men, and is responsible 
to the people at large for the payment of all fines which may be im- 
posed upon the members of his family. However successful any one 
individual may be in amassing propertj', he cheerfully deposites almost 
the whole of it in the house of the head man of his famil}^, and seems 
am.ply repaid for his toil in having the satisfaction to know that he has 
contributed largely to the common stock. 

The old men who stand at the head of their respective families are 
much revered; and when they unite on a particular measure, their 
influence is very considerable, and their decisions seldom reversed. But 
there does not seem to be anything like political organization among 
them. 

There are four prominent offices among them : the Bodio, the Tihba- 
wah, the Worabank, and the Ibadio. The two first are sacred offices. 
The Bodio is the protector of the people and the town. His house is of 
a different shape and much larger than the others ; it is something of a 
sanctuary, and is a place of refuge for all culprits who fly to it. If a 
criminal can enter the house and place his hands upon the great gree- 
gree, no one but the Bodio can remove him. In front of the Bodio's 
house important oaths are administered, and perjury under such circum- 
stances is guilt of the deepest dye. If the Bodio puts his hand upon a 
person condemned to drink sassy-wood water, the latter goes free. 
He wears a plain iron ring round his ankle, as the badge of his office, 
and if that should by any means be removed or lost, he would lose his 
office and be subject to a heavy fine. He is subjected to a great many 
singular restrictions. He must never sleep out of his own town ; the 
rain must never touch his head; and he is never allowed to sit down, 
except upon a monkey skin, which he always carries in his hand. He 
is restricted from certain kinds of food, and on burial days he is not 
allowed to partake of any food whatever until the sun has gone dow^n; 
and he can wear only one kind of cloth. 

If a stranger has a complaint against any individual in the town, he 
prefers it befbre the Bodio, who calls a town council and presides at it, 
but has no power to decide any case without the concurrence of the 
people. The wife of the Bodio is a person of still greater sanctity ; 
any lewd intercourse with her is always most severely punished. On 
no consideration whatever w^ould she be allowed to be absent from 
home one night. If the town burns dowm, and months elapse before it 
is rebuilt, she must sleep on the spot, whatever be the state of the 
weather. 

The Tihbawah is the judicial head of the soldiery. He is subjected 
to nearly the same restraints as the Bodio. 

The Worabank is commander-in-chief in time of war. The inter- 
pretation of his name is Tower Tail, and its origin is a little singular, 
but in strict accordance with the notions of Afiicans. Here, as every- 
where else in the world, the post of most danger is the post of greatest 
honor. Hence the rearmost rank in retreat, which is very common in 
their warfare, is the place of greatest danger, and he who has bravery 



54 



H. Doc. 1. 



enough to occupy it, becomes the commander-in-chief. His authority 
is never exercised until war is declared, and then he has more power 
than any other individual in the community. He is subject to none of 
the restrictions of the Bodio and the Tihbawah, but eats, drinks, and 
wears w^hat he pleases. 

The Ibadio is associated with the Tihbawah, and is sometiiing of a 
civil magistrate among the soldiery in time of peace. But the most 
powerful and efficient organization is the soldiery. They constitute 
the bone and sinew of the body politic. It embraces the chief part of 
young and middle aged men. They fight the wars of the people, and 
they repay themselves abundantly for their toil and exposure by their 
high-handed and exorbitant exactions both in peace and war. It is an 
elective body. No one can be admitted into its ranks without paying 
an initiation fee, which is usually a bullock. They receive a great 
many presents to avert rapacity, and they help themselves to much 
that is not given to them. The}^ never deprive a man of his property, 
however, without alleging some crime against him. The charge of 
witchcraft is one they can alwa3^s bring forward with some plausibility, 
and the result of the prosecution, if nothing worse, always turns a bul- 
lock into their hands. But the people understand their interests, and 
save their property, and perhaps their lives, b}^ voluntar}^ offerings. 

There is no other restraint but interest on this powerful body. As 
it is constituted by representation from each family, and as all fines 
imposed upon an individual must be paid out of the family stock, they 
naturally restrain each other, and prevent much lawless aggression. 
They do not often oppose the influence of the old men, and rarely, if 
ever, reverse their decisions ; but the old men are careful not to in- 
fringe upon the prerogatives of the soldiery. The latter enforce all de- 
cisions that are passed by the people in a collective capacit3^ If any 
one refuses to pay a fine that is imposed, it is only necessary to report 
the case to the soldiery, who are always glad of an opportunity^ to 
interfere, for, besides collecting the fine, they always abundantly in- 
demnify themselves for their trouble. In time of war they may seize 
and kill any cattle the}^ please, and the ow^ner does not dare demur. 
If he charge one of them with stealing, they employ the following test: 
The accused is taken to the water-side, and an open basket is pro- 
vided. The accuser is told that if the basket holds water the soldier 
is guilty, but should it run out the charge is pronounced a false accusa- 
tion, and he who has jDreferred it is fined three-fold for his audacity. 
The mode of trial is well understood, and few expose themselves to the 
snare. 

There are no other magistrates in this tribe, and all cases of dispute 
are submitted to the people for adjudication. They have no written 
laws, and all their decisions are made viva voce. They never inflict 
capital punishment; and although the husband often castigates his 
wives, sometimes severely, the children are indulged to the utmost, 
and are never whipped. Banishment is the highest penalty ever en- 
forced. Almost every trespass is punished by fine, which is regulated 
not so much by the nature of the offence as by the ability of the delin- 
quent to pay. For stealing, the thief is required to restore two, three, 
and sometimes four- fold. 



H. Doc. 1. 



55 



The charge of witchcraft is the most disgraceful that can be alleged. 
They have several trials by ordeal. One of them is to dip the hand 
into boiling oil. If it can be submerged in the oil and taken out un- 
injured, the accused is declared guiltless; if not, he is condemned. 
Another, more serious, and more universal along the entire coast, is the 
trial by sassy-wood water, which is regarded as an infallible mode of 
detecting witchcraft. The bark of the tree is procured, and from it a 
strong decoction is prepared, which the accused is enjoined to drink. 
If he disgorge it, he is pronounced innocent; if not, his death is in- 
evitable. This trial by sassy-wood is always voluntary on the part of 
the accused; he is not compelled to drink it, but death is preferable to 
the suspicion of witchcraft, and many who perish drink it in the con- 
fident belief that it will not injure them. 

The will of the people is the law of the land, and no man can 
prosper who does not conciliate public opinion. If any one be more 
successful than the rest of his tribe in accumulating property, he be- 
comes the subject of jealousy, and some charge is sure to be preferred 
against him. This would seem to be a great drawback to industry ; but 
it is not so with Africans. They scarce know what discouragement is. 
If the whole property of an individual be swept away by fire, or the 
violence of a mob, in good glee he immediately sets to work to repair 
his loss. Enterprising men have seen the whole of their property de- 
stroyed three or four times in their lives without manifesting despond- 
ency, or relaxing their efforts to retrieve their fortune. 

The families of the tribe are so much interwoven, and their mar- 
riages one with the other are so frequent, that the interest of each 
community requires that it should deal equitably with others ; and they 
have too many mutual drawbacks upon each other to allow any high- 
handed or unjust procedure. Litigated points between individuals are 
frequently referred to a third party. 

The treaties of the tribe are held sacred, and they have several 
ways of ratifying them. The most common is the following: The par- 
ties concerned take each a mouthful of water from the same vessel and 
eject it in the presence of witnesses, at the same time calling upon 
God, the devil, and the town, to bear testimony. They have another, 
that is employed on extraordinary occasions, particularly when a league 
of amity is for the first time established. An incision is made upon the 
backs of the hands of persons belonging to the two parties, with the 
same knife. By this means their blood is mingled, and they become 
one people. Treaties thus ratified are as inviolable as any in the 
world, and may be relied upon with implicit confidence. 

Much that I have said, especially respecting the tribes, apart from 
what I gathered myself, is derived, some of it verbatim, from Dr. 
McDowell and the Rev. Messrs. Connelly and Wilson. 

Anxious to obtain information respecting the river Cavally from 
Bishop Payne, of the Episcopal church, who resided in its vicinity, I 
started, on the 16th February, at 7 a. m., in company with Commander 
Barron and Surgeon Sinclair, on a visit to Half Cavally, the seat of the 
mission. Landing at Harper, we walked to Latrobe, and from thence 
embarked on Shepherd's lake, which lies lengthwise parallel to the 
sea, from which it is separated by a high and narrow strip of sand. In 



56 



H. Doc. 1. 



an hour and a half we arrived at the head of the lake, after passing 
Half Grahway and Grahway, two populous villages of tlie Grebo 
tribe, situated on the narrow strip between the lake and the sea. 
These villages are fenced in by palisades, eight to ten feet high, with 
an opening at each extremity, barely wide enough for one person to 
enter at a time, and so low as to require him to stoop in passing. 
Thence, walking a quarter of a mile, we came to another very large 
village, and a few hundred 3^ards further to a smaller one, inhabited by 
the same tribe. There were many women and children about, looking 
contented and healthy; but there were very few men visible, they 
being absent preparing the fields for planting rice the approaching rainy 
season. The few males who fell under my observation were better 
clothed than the females ; and this remark is applicable to all the tribes 
I have seen. The men seem here to have invaded the privileges of the 
other sex in two particulars — by evincing a greater love of dress, and 
by monopolizing the use of needle and thread. The husband mends 
the household garments, while the wife splits wood for the fire. There 
is but a single variation in the costume of the female — the occasional 
change of color in the only article they wear, which bears the same 
proportion to a civilized garment that a waist-band does to a pair of 
unmentionables. 

After passing this second village — one mounted on a jenny, and the 
other two in hammocks borne by natives — we travelled along the sea- 
beach about three-quarters of a mile ; and then turning to the east, 
traversed a sandy prairie for two miles, and reached a rocky knoll at 
its extremity, close upon the sea, where we found some look-outs from 
an adjoining populous village. Pursuing our course between the pali- 
sades of the latter and the sea, we passed through another populous 
village, and entered immediately upon the precincts of the mission. 

A little beyond the palisade of the last village was a broad avenue, 
lined with wide-spreading cocoa-palm trees, leading up a gentle ascent, 
on the summit of which was the mission-house. A little below it, on 
the left, we noticed the foundation and part of the superstructure of a 
large brick church. 

The mission-house is a frame building, and although seemingly com- 
modious, resembles imperfect joint- work, presenting the appearance of 
having been constructed in detached parts at different intervals. 

The plan pursued in this mission seems to be the best adapted of 
any I have observed or heard of for reclaiming the African. By the 
usage of the tribes, females are contracted in childhood, the future hus- 
band making payment in advance, and the father binding himself to 
deliver up his daughter at the marriageable age. Heretofore the females 
taught in the missions have been claimed by those to whom they were 
affianced, after having, with apparent conviction and zeal, embraced 
and for some years practised Christianity. The consequence was, that 
they fell back to barbarism. In like manner the males, returnuig to 
their tribes, would sink under the pernicious iufluence of polygamy. 
But Bishop Payne (I believe that the credit of the suggestion is due to 
him) obviates the first difficulty, by paying the price for a female child 
and receiving her into the mission, to be educated by the accomplished 
and devoted ladies connected with it. In like manner, the boys are 



H. Doc. 1. 



57 



taught a trade, as well as their catechism and grammar, by the reverend 
gentlemen ; and when the former attain the age when heretofore they 
have left to rejoin their tribes, employment is given them by the mission, 
and every inducement presented to marry one of the educated native 
females, and settle within the precincts. In this way there is now a 
village on the mission premises of about sixty native Christians, occu- 
pying comfortable houses erected by themselves. This is a slow and 
expensive, but seems to be the only effectual, mode of retaining in the 
Christian fold those who have been reclaimed from barbarism, and 
whose descendants may prove pow^erful auxiliaries to future messen- 
gers of the Gospel. 

I ascertained that it would be almost impossible to cross the bar of 
the Cavally river, except in a boat during the most favorable season ; I 
would not, therefore, detain the John Adams to proceed to the mouth of 
that river, as it might take weeks to return against the current to Cape 
Palmas, although the distance is but fifteen miles. I determined, there- 
fore, to postpone m}'' visit to the Cavally until the arrival of the steamer, 
when it was my purpose to make a second and more thorough examin- 
ation of the rivers along the coast, crossing the bars with the vessel, and 
ascending with her as far as possible. 

While at Cape Palmas, Dr. McGill, to whom I am indebted for much 
information and great kindness, took me through the'hospital containing 
the sick among the recently-arrived emigrants. As far as I could judge, 
the type of fever in each case w^as a mild one. Since it has been dis- 
covered that quinine can be admiuistered in large doses, even during 
the paroxysm of fever, the mortality among colored emigrants, I am 
assured, has been diminished fifty per cent. Such is the adaptability 
of the constitution of the colored man to this climate, that, after recov- 
ering from sickness, he can attain and preserve his previous health and 
strength. On several occasions, when I could scarce endure the fiery 
rays of the sun, colonists would be walking along bare-headed, who 
laughingly declared that they rather enjoyed than suffered from the 
heat. The white man, on the contrary, never becomes acclimated; and 
after he has undergone the ordeal of the fever, if he do not recruit his 
strength by seeking for a time a more congenial climate, he will, accord- 
ing to his vital energy, meet with a hngering or a speedy death. 

The day after returning from Cavally I visited Rock Town, a mis- 
sionary school station, situated on a small stream where it flows into 
the sea, four miles from Cape Palmas. A projecting rocky point pro- 
tects the mouth of this river from southerly winds ; but the stream is 
shallow, and its bar is rarely crossed by anything larger than a canoe. 
Just within the extremity of the point is a Grebo village, and a short 
distance from it, on the opposite side of the stream, is another, with its 
Fetish House, without the pahsade. They are populous, and although, 
like all the rest, their huts are placed irregularly, the spaces between, 
as in the others also, are kept scrupulously clean. 

We found the Rev. Mr- Horne, with sallow complexion, laboring in 
his God-like vocation, teaching Pagan children the rudiments of Christ- 
ianity. While above stairs, his pallid child had just passed through, 
and his wife was undergoing the ordeal of the climate, with none but 
native Africans around them, and without necessary comforts for the 



58 



H. Doc. 1. 



sick. As I have before said, this illustrates the true chivalry of the 
Gospel. 

The country about Rock Town is prairie, with palm-trees so beauti- 
fully interspersed as to convey the idea expressed by Major Laing, in 
describing another section, of having been planted expressly to adorn 
the landscape. 

The soil is sandy, but far from unproductive ; and in Mr. Home's gar- 
den I saw, besides a great variety of vegetables, fruits, and flowers, indi- 
genous to the climate, a number introduced by him from the West Indies. 

The day after my visit to Rock Town I was attacked by the fever, 
and from thenceforth had not sufficient strenoth to make further obser- 

o 

vations. 

We returned slowly to Monrovia against the current, but, on our 
arrival there, learned that the steamer had neither been seen nor heard 
from. 

Being prostrated a second time, in consequence of exposure to the 
sun, I requested Commander Barron to proceed to Half-cape Mount 
river, whither President Roberts had gone with a detachment of 250 
Liberians. But, unable to land there from weakness, I was forced 
to consider my reconnoissance at an end. 

We proceeded to Sierra Leone, where the John Adams left me ; 
and at the expiration of sixteen days, during which the yellow fever 
made its appearance, I embarked for home, and arrived in New York 
on the first of May. 

In this report I have presented things exactly as they appeared to 
me, and at every place 1 visited endeavored to procure reliable in- 
formation, for thus I interpreted my instructions. 

It now remains for me to speak of the best place to disembark an 
exploring party ; the proper inland route ; the precautions to be taken ; 
and the difficulties to be encountered. 

I consider Monrovia the best place for a party to ride out the fever 
in. I believe it to be as healthy as any other settlement in Liberia, 
and good accommodation and nurses for the sick can there be procured. 
Besides, the intercourse of its inhabitants with the interior is more fre- 
quent, and extends farther inland, than from any other point I am 
awire of along the coast. Millsburg, at the head of the navigation of 
the St. Paul's, I recommend as the proper rendezvous, and the point 
from whence to take up the inland march. 

Boporah, a populous native town, of which I have spoken in this 
report, lies directly in the path which it seems to me should be pur- 
sued, and it should be reached as soon as possible, and made the pivot 
of operations for advancing inland, and keeping up a communication 
with the sea-shore. 

The march from Boporah should be regulated by the nature of the 
country, and the distance and direction of the nearest mountain range, 
which must form the water-shed between the tributary streams of the 
Niger and those which flow into the Atlantic. That range attained, 
if it trend southeast, as it most probably does, it might be Ibllowed to 
the parallel of Cape Palmas, with a particular eye to the country on 
its Atlantic slope, and thence the expedition might descend and make 
its way to the sea. 



H. Doc. 1. 



59 



The obstacles to be encountered would be a dense forest, (through 
which, in many places, a path could only be cleared with the hatchet,) 
wild beasts, the frequent morasses, the jealousy and possible treachery 
of the natives, and sometimes the scarcity of food. 

The party should consist of as few whites as possible. The com- 
mander ; an officer to take his place, should he perish ; a physician, 
who should also be a naturalist ; and some twelve or fifteen colonists, 
would perhaps be sufficient. 

The energy of the white man is indispensable for such an under- 
taking ; but, from the hostility of the climate to his race, as few as 
possible should embark in it. The main body, therefore, should be 
citizens of Liberia ; but as no man of resolution and judgment would 
undertake to head them unless they were under military organization, 
and bound to follow as long as he led the way, I suggest that if an ex- 
pedition be organized, the government of Liberia consent to its citizens 
enlisting under the flag of the United States, and thereby subject them- 
selves to its martial code. All ought to possess physical stamina, and 
the whites, especially, should be in the vigor of life, and, if possible, 
natives of our southern States. 

I have considered it my duty to collect in my route all the informa- 
tion I could as to the commerce of the places I visited. It has been 
presented in the body of this report, and few, I presume, are aware of 
the present magnitude and the annual increase of the commerce of 
Western Africa. For further information on this subject, I herewith 
submit the official reports of the British colonial possessions, transmit- 
ted with the Blue Book to both houses of Parliament. 

Our own proportion of the African trade is very large, and might be 
rendered yet more extensive by forming treaties with the principal in- 
dependent tribes along the coast. England has already negotiated 
eighty such treaties, her plenipotentiary being sometimes a lieutenant 
in her navy. To her honor be it said, that while looking to her com- 
mercial interests, she is not forgetful of the claims of humanity, and 
inserts, wherever she can, a clause prohibitory of the slave trade. She 
is, however, accused of reviving that trade in another form, and I sub- 
mit in the appendix (No. 1) a proclamation of the President of Liberia 
on the subject. 

I will illustrate the advantages of the treaties to which I have 
alluded. It is a custom of the tribes, that all traffic with the natives 
shall be transacted through the kings and head men ; in other w^ords, 
the head men and kings are the sole factors of their respective com- 
munities. By a stipulation of the treat}^ these potentates become re- 
sponsible for the payment of debts contracted with an Enghsh trader. 
Should payment be withheld when due, (for the credit system pre- 
vails here as well as in the Christian world,) the trader seeks a British 
man-of-war, and communicates the circumstance to her commander, 
and the latter repairs instantly to the place and enforces payment. 
Not so with the American trader. If his debtors are disposed to de- 
fraud him, he has no redress ; and as native breach of faith is not un- 
frequent, he cannot fairly compete with the Englishman. With this 
report I submit two maps, on a large scale — one of the republic of 
Liberia, and the other of Maryland in Liberia — together with views of 



60 H. Doc. 1. 

Monrovia, the residence of President Roberts, Cape Palmas, Mount 
Vaughan, and Riissworm's monument. 

One other thing I feel impelled to say from a sense of duty, and do 
so most reluctantly. But, if we do not wish to be accused, and per- 
haps justly accused, of observing the letter and neglecting the spirit of 
our treaty stipulation with regard to the slave trade, we will substitute 
small but efficient steamers lor sailing-vessels upon the African station. 
Judging of the future from the past, I venture to say that the frigate 
Constitution is of little more use in suppressing that trade than if she 
w^ere in the Bay of Fundy. Nor can it scarce be otherwise. From 
Goree to Cape Palmas, ranging from fifty to eighty miles from the 
coast, is a misty region of alternate calms, light winds, currents, and 
tornadoes, with overwhelming torrents of rain, compared to which the 
refreshing showers of our own more favored clime are as dew-drops to 
overflowing cisterns. In the " John Adams," we were ten days 
making a distance which a steamer could have accomplished in thirty- 
six hours. From Monrovia to the island of St. Jago, vessels are often 
forty days on the passage, which a steamer could make in five. In one 
direction along the coast it is a drift with the sluggish current : in the 
other, it is working up against it with light and baffling winds. 

I do not say that the vessels we have on the coast do not sometimes 
protect our commercial interests, or are not otherwise serviceable. I 
have mentioned the "John Adams" assisting a merchant vessel in dis- 
tress ; and I submit in the appendix (Nos. 2, 3, and 4) some letters from 
President Roberts, expressing acknowledgments for benefits derived 
from our squadron. But, from the causes I have enumerated, our 
cruisers can visit very few places compared to the number that should 
be visited, and, as the log-books will testify, often remain long at their 
anchors, or make yet more lengthy passages to Madeira to recruit — a 
passage which, under canvass alone, in the teeth of the trade-wind, is 
often more prolonged and more wearing to the ship than if she came 
directly home. 

The service on the coast of Africa needs an incentive. Great Britain 
has twenty-seven vessels-of-war employed in the suppression of the 
slave trade on that coast, and a large proportion of them are steamers, 
mostly small ones. Her naval officers have every inducement to seek 
service on that station, for he who attains to a higher grade by the 
death of his superior in rank, retains it permanently, and does not, as 
with us, hold it but temporarily. The consequence is, that the English 
far surpass us in activity on the coast of Africa. A very slight incen- 
tive would cause service on that coast to be coveted by our officers and 
crews. Within a few years two commanders have died on that sta- 
tion. If the two senior lieutenants in the squadron had been promoted 
permanently, the files of the department would now exhibit more ap- 
plications from lieutenants for service on that station than all others 
combined. And thus of every other grade, except the highest, which, 
hving on its honors, should be influenced by higher aspirations. 

The arrogance of British officers heretofore, precludes the idea of an 
agreement to search respectively the vessels of either nation. It is a 
privilege which cannot be safely conceded to them, and we must at all 
hazards protect the integrity of our flag. But, for the honor of our coun- 



H. Doc. 1. 



61 



try and the protection of its commerce, it is to be hoped that small 
steamers will be substituted for our sailing-vessels on the African coast, 
and that some incentive may be presented which will infuse greater 
activity among them, and render them almost ubiquitous in the neigh- 
borhood of the slave marts, and the parts of the coast frequented by our 
traders, instead of making tedious passages to and from a few places, 
some of them too remote by far, or too long lying suggishly at their 
anchors. 

Since my return I have received intelligence from Sierra Leone of 
the capture by British men-of-w^ar of three slavers, one of them Ameri- 
can. The prostitution of our flag, now so much facilitated by sea-let- 
ters, obtained principally at the consulates of Rio de Janeiro and 
Havana, will continue, to our disgrace, until we have vessels on the 
coast of x\frica propelled by steam, and manned with crews and com- 
manded by officers who are stimulated, the one by increased pay and 
the hope of prize-money, and the other by permanent promotion when 
vacancies are caused by death. The climate is a trying one, and, as 
in battle, the places of those who perish should be filled by the sur- 
vivors. 

I do not permit myself to dwell on the necessity of incorporating into 
the international code a clause declaring the slave-trade piracy under 
any flag ; nor on the frequent decisions of our legal tribunals, (caused 
by the want of such declaration,) which have so discouraged our offi- 
cers. Of this want, and its attendant evil consequences, the govern- 
ment has been long advised. 

In estimating the amount of our African trade I have been careful 
not to exaggerate, and rejected every item not based on authentic data; 
but there is so much traffic along the coast in articles never entered at 
a custom-house, that I have reason to believe I have given twenty-five 
per cent, less than the actual imports ; and as the profits are very 
great, that the exports exceed the estimate nearly one hundred percent. 
Apart, therefore, from the suppression of the slave trade, our com- 
merce with the west coast of Africa needs the protection of an efficient 
force — efficient more in its power of locomotion than in the number of 
its guns. 

A knowledge of the disadvantages under which our countrymen 
labor who trade along that coast, has induced these concluding re- 
marks, and I trust they will not be considered inappropriate. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, &c., 

VV. F. LYNCH, Commander, U. S, K 

Hon. J. C. DoBBix, Secretary of the Navy, 

No. 1. 

Proclamatmi. 

Whereas Messrs. Hyde, Hodge & Co., of London, contractors with 
her Britannic Majesty's governnient to furnish laborers from the African 
coast for the West Indies, have sent some of their ships to the coast of 
the republic, offering an advance of ten dollars for every person who 
may be induced to emigrate ; and whereas the extinction of the slave- 



62 



H. Doc. 1. 



trade has left large numbers of predial and other laborers in the pos- 
session of the chiefs and principal men of the country, while the offer 
of ten dollars each is nearly equivalent to the amount formerly paid for 
slaves during the prevalence of the slave trade, and which operated 
mainly in producing and sustaining the wars by which the country was 
distracted; and whereas certain refractory chiefs are reported to have 
engaged with the agents of said company to furnish a number of labor- 
ers, and are further known to have in concealment near Grand Cape 
Mount a number of the unhappy victims of their predatory excursions ; 
and whereas complaint has been made to the government that persons 
are held, to be sent off without their voluntary consent, or the consent 
of their natural guardians : therefore, to prevent the abuses and evils 
which might otherwise result from the enterprise — 

Be it known by this proclamation to all whom it may concern, that 
the law regulating passports must be strictly observed ; that vessels 
carrying, or intending to carry away immigrants, must come to this 
port with their immigrants on board to obtain passports, in order that 
an opportunity may be presented to the government to ascertain 
whether the emigration be tree or constrained. Every violation of the 
law regulating passports will be visited with the utmost penalty of the 
law in that case made and provided. 

Done at Monrovia, this twenty-sixth day of February, in the year of 
P our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, and of the 
L^* ^'-1 republic the fifth. J. J. ROBERTS. 

By the President : 

H. Teague, Secretary of State. 

No. 2. 

Government House, 

Monrovia, November 16, 1851. 

Sir : I have just received despatches from Grand Bassa, announc- 
ing that a formidable attack was made yesterday morning, about 
7 o'clock, upon the settlement of Bassa Cove, by a force of about one 
thousand Fishmen and Bassas. After a vigorous contest of nearly one 
hour, they were repulsed with considerable loss on their part. The 
enemy has retired; but, it is confidently believed, only to return and to 
renew the attack with increased force and vigor. The settlers there 
are worn down with watching and fatigue, and cannot sustain them- 
selves much longer, without aid in men and ammunition. This is 
earnestly craved in the despatches, and we are now preparing to ren- 
der them the desired succor ; but it will require some two or three 
days to make the necessary preparations here, and as many more days 
perhaps will be occupied in reaching the scene of hostilities. As the 
natives expect and dread a reinforcement from this place, their object 
will be to anticipate it, and to strike a decisive blow ere it arrive. 
The presence of your vessel here, just at this crisis, seems most oppor- 
tune and providential. I have, therefore, to throw myself, and the 
perilous and exposed condition of our leeward settlements, upon your 
iHendly consideration, and solicit, most earnestly, that you will make it 
convenient to take me to Bassa, a distance of only about sixty miles. I 



H. Doc. 1. 



63 



am of the opinion, as are also those whom I have consulted, that the 
presence of your vessel there, and the interest in our cause which your 
taking me down would indicate to them, would effectually deter the 
natives, and stay an immediate blow, and thus afford an opportunity to 
reinforce Bassa Cove and put it in a state of security. 

I hope, sir, you may find it convenient to lend as the aid of the 
presence of the ship under your command, at the scene of hostilities. 
Be assured, sir, it is nothing less than the call of humanity for the 
protection of hundreds of almost wholly defenceless women and chil- 
dren from the brutal rage and fury of savages; for if Bassa should be 
carried by them, we shall have nothing to entertain but the most 
gloomy anticipations for all our leeward settlements, and our numerous 
traders along the coast. 

As it is of the utmost importance that I should, by my arrival at 
Bassa, anticipate an attack by the natives, I shall hold myself ready to 
embark whenever you shall be pleased to give me notice. 
I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 

J. J. ROBERTS, Fresidcnu 

Captain W. Pearson, United States Shijp Dale. 

No. 3. 

Government House, 

Monrovia^ January 24, 1852. 

Sir : Accompanying is a letter which I beg you will take in charge 
for Commodore Lavallette. I have not been able, in consequence of 
the numerous engagements pressing upon me just at this time, to give 
the commodore as liill details of our campaign as I could wish ; and 
I have taken the liberty — for which I beg your indulgence — to refer to 
you for such further particulars of our operations as may have come to 
your knowledge. I enclose herewith a copy of the communication I 
have addressed to the commodore. 

Permit me here, sir, to present — which I beg you will accept — my 
sincere thanks for the services you have rendered the people of this 
republic in their present difficulties. I am fully sensible of the obli- 
gations we are under to you. I know, sir, that w^e have had your sym- 
pathies and good wishes with us in all our operations, and that you 
would willingly have afforded us other and more important services had 
circumstances rendered it necessary. 

I beg to assure you, sir, that your kindness will never be forgotten 
by your most obedient, humble servant, 

J. J. ROBERTS. 

Captain S. Barron, 

U, S. Ship John Adams. 



No. 4. 

Government House, 

Monrovia^ January 24, 1S52. 

Sir : I have had the honor of receiving your esteemed favor of 
December 12th, by Captain Barron, of the United States ship John 



64 



H. Doc. 1. 



Adams, which vessel, on hearing of our difficulties with the natives of 
Grand Bassa, you very kindty despatched to aid us "in such meas- 
ures as might be deemed necessary to establish full confidence in the 
minds of the settlers of their security, by assurances of protection to 
them by the naval forces of the United States when their situation 
needs it." 

This kind feeling of concern for the security and future welfare of 
Liberia, and the sentiments of benevolence you so kindly express, sir, 
are sensibly felt and deeply appreciated by the whole people of this 
republic. Your goodness in sending them aid, at a time when they so 
much needed the countenance and support of a foreign power, to con- 
vince their enemies that they are not forgotten nor neglected in time of 
peril, places us under renewed obhgations to your government and to 
yourself ; and I assure you, sir, your kindness in this instance will en- 
dure w^ith the history of Liberia, and I fancy will never be erased from 
the memory of her citizens. And in their behalf I have the honor to 
present, and I beg you will accept, sincere thanks and grateful ac- 
knowledgments. 

Captain Barron arrived at Monrovia two days after my departure 
with a body of troops for Grand Bassa ; without delay he proceeded 
to join us at this latter place, where he arrived and communicated with 
me early in the evening of the 1st instant. It would be impossible to 
describe to you the bursts of joy that ran through our little camp when 
the arrival of the " John Adams," and the object of her visit, were 
announced. 

Having just returned to this place, and the time of the departure of 
the "John Adams" being up, I cannot give you the details of our 
movements, and must beg to refer you to Captain Barron for particu- 
lars. Our operations have been mostly inland, from ten to fifteen 
miles parallel with' the beach, and extending along the coast about 
thirty-five miles. The presence of the "John Adams" at certain points 
of the coast along the line of our march, no doubt, had a favorable 
eflTect, and tended much to keep the natives near the coast in check, 
and also afibrd us certain means of comnmnication. 

I have great satisfaction in stating that Captain Barron readily met 
my wishes in placing his ship off such points of the coast where it was 
deemed his presence would be most important; and also tendered 
his services to assist us in any other way consistent with his duty and 
instructions. 

I am happy to inform you that the campaign, though it has been an 
exceedingly fatiguing one, has terminated quite to our satisfaction. 
We have given the deluded enemy a chastisement w^hich he will long 
remember, and, T doubt not, will relieve us from any trouble or diffi- 
culty in future in that quarter. We had two severe engagements ; in 
the last we had four killed and twenty-seven wounded, two of whom 
have since died ; the others are doing well, and will probably recover. 

With many thanks, high regard and esteem, I have the honor to be, 
sir, most respectfully, your obedient and humble servant, 

J. J. ROBERTS. 

Com. E. A. F. Lavallette, 

Commanding U. S. Naval Forces west coast of Africa. 



LIBERIA, 



A.S. I FOUN"D IT 



IN 18 5 8 



BY 

REV. ALEXANDER M. COWAN 

AGENT KENTUCKY COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 



FRANK$*ORT, KEKTUCKt. 

A. G. HODGES . PRINTER. 

1858. 



PREFACE. 



I have labored for twelve years in the African Coloniza- 
tion cause with mind, heart and body. I found, as time 
passed on, the published pi-ogress of Liberia, (which her 
Annual State Treasurer's Report will indicate,) did not meet, 
in my mind, the vivid descriptions given of the agricultural 
condition of the people. I came to the conclusion to visit 
that land, and examine it for myself. What I wanted to 
know of it, the reader will readily learn, as he reads the 
journal herewith furnished to him. As to my ability and 
faithfulness in making the examination, he is able to judge 
for himself, without much study. Whether I have done jus- 
tice to the Liberians in my statements of themselves and 
their country, and have regarded the expediency and wel- 
fare of the black people in emigrating to Liberia as their fu- 
ture home, can also be correctly determined on, if the reader 
will decide with the same character of candor that the 
writer has used in writing. Both sides of the Atlantic 
ocean demand candor and truthfulness in stating and in 
examining the facts pertaining to Liberia. For the colored 
man's future interest, who is dwelling in this country, is to 
be faithfully regarded, as well as Africa's civilization. The 
minutiae of information is therefore given, that the colored 
man's choice may be made to his satisfaction, if he puts his 
foot on Liberia's shore as his home. He is told what he will 
find in Liberia without any fear of its being contradicted by 
his own examination, or that of another, in what pertains 
to his state as a free man ; and a man, that has claims upon 
the soil he makes his home, to give to him and his family a 
good support as the returns of his industry. 

I take this opportunity of expressing my great indebted- 
ness to President Benson, and other officers of the Liberian 



4 



PREFACE. 



Republic, for readily giving me access to official documents, 
or copies of those I asked for, to aid me in getting the infor- 
mation of their Republic that I deemed necessary to have. 
And the copies of such papers showed the penmanship of 
clerks that guaranteed well written official documents would 
be handed down to future generations in their land. 



Greneral Remarks. 



We make the following statements for the information of 
some of our readers who are not posted up in the history of 
African Colonization. They are worth noticing, and cannot 
>vell be incorporated in the journal. 

The first emigrants, eighty-six in number, to Africa from 
the United States, went in 1820. The proportions were, 
sixty-eight from the free states, and eighteen from the slave 
states. They all landed at Sherbro, south east from Sierra 
Leone. Ten ol the number returned to the United States ; 
seventeen died by the acclimating fever; twenty-four settled 
in Sierra Leone; and the balance, thirty-five, moved down 
to Monrovia, in 1822; and after living there, from two to 
twenty-eight years, died. The next emigration was in 1821. 
Thirty-three free blacks went from Virginia and Maryland. 
None went from the free states. None but free born blacks 
went to Liberia until May, 1823. In that year, Daniel Mar- 
ray of Maryland, and George Mason of Virginia, sent, each 
one, an emancipated slave. Up to July, 1827, six hundred 
and fifty-five emigrants had gone frorfi the north and the 
south to Liberia; nine of them were emancipated slaves. 
From 1828, the number of the emancipated, to go to Liberia, 
increased every year, until now, that class of emigrants 
greatly outnumber the free blacks who go there. Every year 
since 1820, emigrants have been sent to Liberia by the Amer- 
ican Colonization Society. As all is done by charity, in the 
way of aiding the emigrants to get to Liberia, and all is a 
voluntary act on the part of the emigrant to go or to stay 
here, the number of emigrants will vary each year. In one 
year, 1839, only forty-seven went. In 1832, seven hundred 
and ninety-six went. The abolition excitement was the 
cause of it. In 1851, six hundred and seventy-five went. In 
1853, seven hundred and eighty-three went. But be they 
many or few, all go as their predecessors went, inexperi- 
enced in living to themselves, and have removed from them, 
the regulating presence, and all controling power of the 
white man. They go in their civilization, the result of their 
observance of civilization. They necessarily differ among 
themselves in their knowledge and experience in providing 



6 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



for their daily wants, and also, in their value of freedom, and 
their motives in settling in Liberia. A great difference is 
found in their pecuniary means to commence their life there, 
and a still greater difference is seen in their economy and 
judgment in using those means for their own benefit. Some 
of them have to make an entire change in all their long 
established reliances for self care, and that of their house- 
holds ; while ail the community have to act in all matters, 
civil, political, national and social, by an untried wisdom in 
their race. It is without doubt, an experiment to build up a 
name, and a habitation for themselves and their posterity. 

No matter what may be the moral or social causes that 
induce persons to leave their birth places to settle in another 
land that is new, and to be subject to their own modes of 
life, there will be some of the number that will soon become 
dissatisfied, and decry the land of their adoption. The Lord 
told Moses that he would bring the Israelites "unto a good 
land, and large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey." 
But when the Israelites came to the land, man\^ of them said 
to Moses, "wherefore have ye made us to come up out of 
Egypt to bring us in unto this evil place? It is no place of 
seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is 
their any water to drink." It is with these impressions I 
went to Liberia to look at her state and condition. 

The settlements of civilized blacks are far between on the 
Coast. This was, apparently, bad policy, but necessity led 
to its arrangement. The intermediate country has been 
purchased — and it gives an extent of coast territory that it is 
not easy for the Liberian government, with her present re- 
sources, to manage. There are two good reasons for the 
purchases, 1. The land owned by different distinct tribes 
on the coast from Sierra Leone to Cape Palmas Territory, is 
brought under a civilized government of blacks. 2. The 
slave trade, which for centuries has been carried on exten- 
sively within this limit of country, is broken up by the refu- 
sal of this civilized government to let the slaver go up the 
rivers for slaves, or for the tribes to bring down their slaves 
to sell them to the slavers. 



Liberia, as I fbmid it. 



In giving- an account of my visit to Liberia, it is proper^ 
for the information of those most likely to go there, that 1 
should commence in my tour at Baltimore, Maryland, w^ith 
the ship. It is due to the memory of John Stevens, Esq., 
late of Talbot county, Maryland, to state that he made 
an unsolicited offer to the American Colonization Society of 
$36,000, to build a ship to convey fi^ee colored emigrants 
from the United States to Liberia. This sum had been de- 
signed by Mr. SteA^ens, as a legacy to his daughter, Caro- 
line. But she having died, he gave the money to the Afri- 
can Colonization cause; and a like sum to his only living 
child, Mary. At the request of Mr. Stevens, the ship, when 
built, was named Mary Caroline Stevens. The interest on 
the $36,000. given by Mr. Stevens, made his donation $37,- 
000. The Maryland State Colonization Society advanced 
$5,000, to be refunded by the ship's taking emigrants from 
Maryland to Liberia, from time to time, to cover that sum. 
These two sums make $42,000, the cost of the ship, which 
was built in 1856. Her water tanks, cooking apparatus, 
and library, were donations of different individuals. The 
ship is well built, and combines fast sailing, with comforta- 
ble arrangements for the emigrants and their property. Her 
tonage is seven hundred and thirteen tons. Her lower hold 
will take in about two thousand five hundred barrels of flour 
or pork. The second deck is set apart for the accommoda- 
tion of the emigrants. It may be called the steerage cabin. 
It is one hundred and eighteen feet long, twenty-nine feet 
broad, and seven and a half feet high. Within this space, 
are forty births, put up on each side of the ship ; twelve in 
the midships, forward, and eight in the midships, aft; ma- 
king in all, one hundred. Each birth is six feet long, and 
four feet wide. Two persons are allowed to each birth, ex- 
cept in cases of parents having small children. Only two 
hundred and fort}^ emigrants are allowed by an United States 
law, to go in her, to Liberia, in each voyage. This law was 
passed as security to the blacks, that there should not, at 
any time, be an unsafe number for comfort and health on 
board of the ship. All the fixtures for births are planed, 
painted, and put up substantially. The emigrants, on going 



8 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



on board the ship, select their births, and famish their own 
bedding, which they take with them on shore, when they 
reach Liberia. It will be observed, that this place furnishes 
sufficient room for the baggage they will need for the voy- 
age, w^hile their other property will be placed in the lower 
hold of the ship, to have it out of the way during the voy- 
age. This space also gives room to sit, sew, read and talk, 
and for the children to play, without any danger to life or 
limb. Morning and evening religious services are here held 
by themselves; and on the Sabbath, they here meet for pub- 
lic worship, if the weather does not permit them to assemble 
on the upper deck. During our passage, we had public wor- 
ship on every Sabbath ; and the morning and evening prayer 
was offered to God, who "owns the sea, as well as the dry 
land." 

There are three permanent tin ventilators to furnish fresh 
air to this steerage room, if I may so call it. Besides these 
ventilators, there are two covered frames, with two doors, 
one on the opposite side to the other, over the forward and 
after hatches, with a flight of stairs at each hatchway, 
adapted to the aged and young to go up and dow^n with 
safety. The doors are always open, except when it rains; 
then the one that the rain requires to be shut, is closed, while 
the other is open to give fresh air. Then immediately over 
the centre of this steerage cabin is the main hatchway, seven 
feet square, which is kept open night and day, except when 
it rains, which increases the means for fresh air to those be- 
low. Independent of these arrangements for fresh air, there 
are conductors to furnish fresh air constantly, to all parts of the 
ship from which foul air can arise. In the passenger cabin 
floor, are ten deck lights, (glass,) fifteen inches long, and 
seven inches wide, to give light to that part of the steerage 
that runs under the cabin. On the main deck, there are ten 
such lights, six inches by three inches, each, for the same 
purposes, to the other parts of the steerage. Lamps are 
hung up to give light to all parts of it during each night of 
the voyage. Every morning, under the directions of the 
mates of the ship, this steerage room is cleaned out, and all 
dirt is carried up and thrown overboard. On the upper deck 
forward, there are private houses built for the accommoda- 
tion of the emigrants. The cabin of the ship has state rooms to 
accommodate sixteen passengers with every necessary com- 
fort for a sea voyage, including a good sized bathing room. A 
library of choice reading, to suit the religious and literary 
taste of all passengers, is at their free use, while inmates of 
the ship. There are two iron water tanks containing over 
eight thousand gallons of water, and twelve iron bound 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



9 



oak hogsheads, containing rising of three thousand gallons 
of water. These tanks and hogsheads are filled with the 
best of water that Baltimore affords, just before the ship 
sails on her voyage. When the ship is ready to sail from 
Liberia, the supply of water needed for the voyage back is 
taken in from her best watering places. The tanks and 
casks are emptied and cleansed, and the tanks whitewashed, 
every voyage the ship makes. The ship is in charge of a 
Captain, who is selected for his suitableness to sail the ves- 
sel, to govern his crew, and exercise a judicious and necessary 
authority over the emigrants, to preserve order among them, 
and keep them out of harms way while on ship board. He 
has two mates to assist him in his duties, who are selected 
for their qualifications to do so. The sailors before the mast 
are twelve in number. It is not to be expected, from the 
wandering habits of sailors, that the same crew can be had 
for every voyage of the ship. Yet, such is the character of 
the ship, and such is the intention to make her strictly 
No. 1 in her arrangements for officers, discipline, provisions, 
and pay, that she will command a better than an average 
crew that ships of her tonage have. There is a steward at- 
tached to the cabin, who is confined in his duties to it, and on 
whom rests the preparation of pastry for the table. The 
cook cooks for the emigrants, as well as for the cabin pas- 
sengers and crew. He has been selected as a permanent 
official in his department, from his long experience in other 
vessels which have sailed from Baltimore to Liberia. He is 
a colored man. The provisions for the voyage, and for the 
six months support of the emigrants, after their arrival in 
Liberia, are laid in by Dr. James Hall, of Baltimore, the 
General Agent of the American Colonization Society, to take 
charge of the ship, her repairs, &c. The provisions for the 
emigrants, during the voyage, are put in charge of the cook, 
under the supervision of the Captain. The emigrants are 
divided off into suitable messes for number, alw^ays placing 
the children with their parents in the mess. The cook gave 
to me this weekl}^ bill of fare — 

Sabbath — Flour, beef, fish or pork, butter, and potatoes. 

Monday — Beef and potatoes. 

Tuesday — Pork, beans, bean soup, cheese, and potatoes. 

Wednesday — Bacon, sour crout, and potatoes. 

Thursday — Flour, beef, pork, butter, and potatoes. 

Friday — Pork, peas, pea soup, cheese, and potatoes. 

Saturda}^ — Beef, pork, rice, and potatoes. 

Each day they have coffee or tea, and molasses or sugar. 
Each head man of a mess is furnished with a ticket by the 
cook, to come at a specified hour, with his ticket, to draw for 



10 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



each one in his mess, flour, molasses, sugar, butter and 
cheese. In these articles, there is a limitation. In the other 
articles mentioned, there is no limitation but the appetite of 
the person. The ticket is to prevent imposition in drawing 
twice at the same meal. Twice a day their meals are serv- 
ed out to them. At the ringing of the cook's bell the head 
man of each mess goes up for the supply of each one in his 
mess. Each one in the mess has a pint of molasses, or a pound 
of sugar, as it is preferred, each day ; and one pound of flour is 
given to each one in the mess on the two days of the week it is 
served out. The mess may make up the flour into bread or 
pudding, as they prefer it to be cooked, and the cook cooks 
it. A barrel of corn meal and a barrel of ship biscuit are 
standing open in the steerage for all the emigrants to take 
from when they please. The barrel is renew^ed when it is 
emptied. If a mess, or any individual in the mess, wants 
corn bread, it is made up and presented to the cook, at the 
time he rings his bell for that purpose, in the morning, in- a 
sheet iron pan furnished to each mess. Each mess knows his 
pan. When this bread is baked, the bell announces it must 
be taken away. The oven will hold the bread made up 
from a barrel of meal. All the emigrants are furnished with 
tin plates, cups, coflee pots, knives and forks, spoons, pepper 
boxes, salt cellars, tin basons, tin pans, and large pans to 
wash these articles in when used. All these articles they 
take with them when they go on shore in Libeiia. To each 
mess is furnished a can that will hold the water each mess 
is allowed for drink each day. Those in the mess over 
twelve years of age have three quarts each day, and those 
that are twelve, and under, have one quart each day. The 
ship is furnished with a full supply of medicines for the voy- 
age. The Captain, from his experience, is prepared to at- 
tend to any case that may ordinarily occur among the pas- 
sengers, crew, or emigrants. The sea sickness, in general, 
lasts from two to four days — in a few cases, a longer time — 
but all make up their losses in the provision line by a good 
appetite. The kind hearted cook is not displeased at this 
change, for he has at least three female emigrant helpers, 
who, either from kind regards to him, or from love to some 
extra bits that are prepared for the cabin passengers, will 
stand by him with a smiling look and ready hand to help 
him. Some persons in this world know how to take special 
care of themselves, even if the skin be colored. The steer- 
age passage from Baltimore to any place the ship lands emi- 
grants at in Liberia, is $35 ; this includes provisions on the 
voyage; children, $17 50. For passage, and six months 
support in Liberia from the time of landing there, and med- 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



11 



ical aid when needed during the six months, $70 is required 
of each emigrant. 

When the ship leaves Cape Henry she enters on the 
broad Atlantic sea, "where men go down in ships to do 
busmess, and where we see the works of the Lord, and his 
wonders in the deep." But "the ship, which, though it be 
so great, and is often driven of fierce winds, yet is it turned 
about with a very small helm whithersoever the governor 
iisteth." The distance from Baltimore to Liberia may be 
put down, as the vessel lays her course to get the benefit of 
the Trade Winds, at four thousand miles, about six hundred 
miles further than it is from Baltimore to England. In sail- 
ing from the coast of the United States to Liberia, land is 
not seen until you come in the neighborhood of the Cape De 
Verd Islands. They are thirteen in number, and they be- 
long to Spain. Only two of them are seen on the passage. 
Santiago, or Santo Antonio first comes into view. It is seen 
fifty miles off'. It is in 17° 12' North lat. and 25° 19' West 
long. It is said to be seven thousand four hundred feet high. 
When first seen it appears like a bank of dark clouds stretched 
along the horizon, for some miles. As it is approached, as in our 
case, under a breeze that drove us along at the rate of 
twelve miles an hour, it loomed up higher and higher with its 
broad dark side stretching itself thirty-six miles along, — 
what, — there it stands, a huge, high mountain, twelve miles 
broad or wide. It is a red sand stone in color, and its sides 
are bare of vegetation from its top to its base. We saw dis- 
tinctly, the grooves in the rock, some larger and deeper than 
others, that the rains had cut on their long passage from the 
top to the sea. We sailed within three-fourths of a mile 
of it. The sea dashed against the base, and gave its 
sound, that it could go no farther. The eye of the passer- 
by is not tired at beholding it, nor is his mind wearied in its 
conjectures how came such materials in this deep, and how 
did they arise to such a height. What a deep foundation 
was once moved here in the sea. Will this mighty founda- 
tion stand firm forever? "God takes up the isles as a very 
little thing." When we were directly under its shadow, 
our ship, in five minutes, was so becalmed that she made no 
headway. The mountain cut off the wind we had had. Our 
Captain knew that this would be the case, but he wanted to 
gratify our desire to see it as plain as it could be seen, with- 
out going on shore. In fact, it cannot be seen but from the 
ship's deck. The emigrants enjoyed the sight. For six 
hours we drifted off' by the current so far as to be able to 
catch a breeze, and go on our way with speed. The island 
is inhabited mostly by negroes. It is estimated to be nine 



12 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



hundred miles from the coast of Africa. By daylight the 
next morning, we had run one hundred and fifty miles, and 
there stood before us St. Fogo, that is a mount of fire. It is 
another island of the same group. It is nine thousand one 
hundred and fifty-seven feet high, according to the gazetteer. 
It is in 140 56' North lat., and 24° 21' West long. It pre- 
sents the same barren aspect on one of its sides that Santo 
Antonio did, while there is more land, I was told, on its east 
side, that could be cultivated. On some of these islands, 
there are horses, and mules, and cattle. St. Jago De Cuba, 
is an island in this cluster, where much salt is made from the 
sea-water. I learnt from a missionary, after my arrival in 
Monrovia, that he had been at St. Jago De Cuba lately, 
when Fogo was heaving out its volcanic fire. The first erup- 
tion in it was in 1680. The last before this recent one, was 
1843. The population is put down at ten thousand. St. 
Fogo is considered to be seven hundred and fifty miles from 
the African coast. After passing St. Fogo, we learnt, from 
sad experience, that a sailing vessel depends on the wind to 
make dispatch. We were thirteen days getting seven hun- 
dred and fifty miles. Some days w^e were in doubt whether 
we had advanced ten miles. The sea was as still as a babe 
rocked to sleep. A dead calm, as the sailors style it, pre- 
vailed for hours at a time. It was an excellent situation to 
learn patience, and to exercise it. The length of the voy- 
age to Liberia depends very much upon these calms occur- 
ring to retard the sailing of the ship. The passage can be 
made in twenty-eight days. We were thirty-three days 
making it. But what is that time, as to length, if we have 
not steam in our minds. What is that time when we think 
of the first settlers of Kentuck}^ taking their long and lonely 
journey over mountain and dale, and river and creek, from 
their old homes in Virginia, to their new homes in Ken- 
tucky. What a long and tiresome road that was ! The 
voyage to Liberia is made with a great variety of pleasant 
incidents. The gunwales of the ship are so high that the 
children can play without danger of falling overboard. A 
vessel occasionally comes in sight, and is watched on her 
course with our conjectures where is she from, and where is 
she going? Fit^h of various size and name attract our atten- 
tion; we see the flying fish rising from the water, and flying 
for his life from the dolphin in "hot pursuit" alter him; then 
the shark is anxiously watched as he follows our ship, to see 
if he will take hold of the bate that is thrown out purposely 
for him to take hold of — he takes it — and the cry we have 
*'got him," draws white and black, big and little, to see him 
landed on the quarter deck, which he flaps with his tail 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



13 



with a force that says to us what he would do if he met 
us fairly in his element; and then the grampus whale comes 
up to the side of our ship and gracefully pauses, as it were, 
for us to look at him, being some three feet below the sur- 
face of the water; and then he goes around the ship at his 
leisure, and then under her, without touching her; for he is 
perfectly at home in the deep, and has nothing to do but to 
eat and drink, and exercise himself in his wide domain. 
Some of the passengers feel an interest in teaching the emi- 
grants to spell and read; and those who can read, to read 
better; some are making up garments for future use; some 
are talking over the events of the days that have passed 
away; some are depicting the scenes they will see in Libe- 
ria; some fiddle or play the banjo with soft and melodious 
notes, and the merry dancers will trip the light measured 
step to the time of the music; some w^ill lie down and sleep 
by day, as well as by night, while all the landsmen on board 
have had full confidence after being one week at sea, that 
the Captain does not mean to have the ship turn over into 
the sea, and let us all fall out into its waters. When we en- 
tered the tropics, 23° 30' North lat., the thermometer, at 3, 
P. M., was 70°. The ship was sailing twelve miles per 
hour. When ofi" Santo Antonio, at 12, noon, the thermometer 
was 72°. Two hundred and ninety-seven miles from Libe^ 
ria, at 2 P. M., in the cabin, it was 81°. One hundred and 
ninety miles off' from it at 7, A. M., in the cabin, it was 81°; 
and it did not, in the cabin, at that hour, vary but one de- 
gree while the ship was on the coast, except two mornings, 
it fell to 76° and 74°, owing, I suppose, to the rain which fell 
between four and five o'clock A. M. on those mornings. 

The ship arrived on the coast of Liberia the 19th of De- 
cember, 1857. It was formerly called the Grain Coast. It 
obtained this name, says an old geography, from the Grains 
of Paradise, or Cardamon, growing there. It is a medicinal 
plant; the seeds of which grow in a pod, and have an aro- 
matic flavor. It is said to be a native of India. The coun- 
try has now the name of Liberia, because it is the country 
of the free colored man. Liberia lies between 7° 34' and 
40 24' North lat., and 12° 57' and 7° 46' West long. In this 
latitude, the sun rises, in the longest days, twelve minutes 
before six o'clock, A. M., and sets, six o'clock, twelve min- 
utes, P. M., making the day twelve hours long. In the short- 
est days, the sun rises at six o'clock, twelve minutes, A. M., 
and sets at five o'clock, forty-eight minutes, P. M., making 
the day eleven hours, and thirty-six minutes long. The dif- 
ference in the length of the days is twenty-four minutes; and 
the difference between their time, and that of Kentucky, is 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



five hours, and forty-five minutes. All along this coast the 
tide rises four feet. The laws of Liberia give this as the 
boundary of Liberia : "Beginning at a line at the mouth of 
the Shebar river on the North-west, running northerly about 
forty miles; thence running easterly, to the eastern line of 
Grand Tahoo, or a line formed by the river San Pedro, on 
the East, being a mean parallel distance from the ocean of 
forty-five miles; thence down the San Pedro river to the 
ocean; and thence along the sea coast, in a North-westerly 
direction, to the place of commencement, including all 
rivers, harbors, bays, islands, and such a distance out in the 
ocean as is determined by the law of Nations to be just and 
proper in such cases, or as security, protection, and a whole- 
some jurisdiction may demand." This described boundary 
has been purchased from the native proprietors of the soil, 
for a good and adequate pecuniary consideration; or it has 
been ceded by its owners to the Republic of Liberia, for the 
political control of the soil and its inhabitants; or has been 
secured to the Republic by preemptive treaties. The length 
of this boundary, on the sea coast, is four hundred and 
ninety miles, by the navigator's line. Liberia is divided in- 
to four counties, viz: Mesurado, Grand Bassa, Sinoe, and 
Maryland. The ship anchored off* Cape Mount, a mile from 
the shore, in eight fathoms of water, on the 20th of Decem- 
ber. Boats and canoes put off immediately from the land, 
with Liberians and natives, to come on board of the ship. 
Our emigrant passengers looked with amazement at the na- 
tives dressed al a mode de natu, that is, with a cloth around 
the loins, coming on the decks; while the natives, accustom- 
ed to see such brethren, according to the flesh, moved about 
among the t^emales, as if all was right. The great object of 
their visit was to obtain work in the landing of the emi- 
grants and the cargo on board of the ship. This is done by 
row boats. For, on the Liberian coast, there are no harbors 
for vessels to enter, and moor along side of wharves, to un- 
lade. The vessels anchor in roadsteads off of their ports of 
entry. There is a class of natives called Kroomen, whose 
territorial possessions lie within the county of Grand Bassa, 
who do all this work for the vessels doing business on the 
coast. The Kroomen are scattered all along the coast of 
Liberia, and are called by different names, to distinguish, 
apparently, their locations on lands that were owned by other 
itribes. They are of one common family, and are known by 
a mark, half an inch in width, that commences in the centre 
of the forehead, at its top, and runs, in a straight line, down 
to the end of the nose. It is made when the child is young, 
Bcarrifying the skin, and inserting some black liquid that 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



15 



leaves an indelible, precise, and defined mark, on this part of 
the face, that distinguishes the Kroomen from all other na- 
tives. This mark is confined to the males, and every male 
in the tribe has it. The Captain of a vessel employs one of 
this class, of knoM^n reputation, as shown by his credentials, 
signed by various Captains who had employed him, to com- 
mand a boat at fifty cents per day; and that Krooman em- 
ploys as many men to row the boat, as are needed, at 
twenty-five cents per day, and their board. They are kept 
in the employ of the vessel until she leaves the coast. Our 
ship employed, steadily, thirteen of them, and occasionally, 
nine others. The object of employing these men is twofold. 

1. The crew of a vessel not being acquainted with the bars 
of the rivers, nor with the tact necessary to take the advan- 
tage of the waves beating on the bars, to safely cross them, 
it is not safe to entrust the boats and their contents to them. 

2. It is not wise to expose the health of the crew by requir- 
ing of them to do all the work, early and late, and in mid- 
day, in getting the cargo from the ship on shore. The Kroo- 
men are^ strong, well proportioned men, willing to work, and 
ready to ask, or receive, dash — that is, a present — from you« 
How merrily, by sun and by moon light, have they given 
me, in a comfortable boat, a pull, a strong pull, and a pull 
altogether, up and down some of the rivers of Liberia. 

Cape Mount is in 6° 45' North lat. and 11° 2.3' West long. 
It is eighty-eight miles from Sherbro. This tract of land 
was bought by the American Colonization Society, for $8,- 
000, of the Vey tribe, for the Republic of Liberia. The 
Vey tribe is one of the most populous tribes within the ter- 
ritorial limits of Liberia, and was once extensively engaged 
in the slave trade. The body of the nation reside back 
from the sea coast, and now own no land on the coast. This 
tribe is, at this time, furnishing French vessels with many 
apprentices, as they are modestly called, for the French 
West India Islands. The Liberian Government has a law 
prohibiting "Masters ol vessels from taking on board, or giv- 
ing passage, to any individual residing within the Republic, 
without a passport from the Secretary of State, unless to be 
landed within the Republic, under a penalty of not less than 
one hundred dollars, nor more than five hundred dollars." 
The object of this law, on its passage, was to protect credi- 
tors, and prevent the escape of violators of the laws of the 
land. An application of it has been made to the natives 
living within the Republic. But the French vessels pay no 
attention to the law, and Liberia is too weak in naval 
strength to command the clearance of such vessels at her 
ports of entry. Cape Mount is the most north-westwardly 



16 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



settlement in Liberia, and is in Mesurada county, which ex- 
tends from the mouth of the Shebar river to the south-east 
bank of the Junk river, a distance of one hundred and sixty- 
one miles. Cape Mount is composed of several cliffs, vary- 
ing in height, and rise, with ravines, which have a gentle 
swale that run up on the sides of the cliffs, until they merge 
in one cliff, with four peaks, that, at a distance, appear as 
one mount. The highest peak is one thousand and seventy 
feet, and can be seen forty miles off at sea. It rises very 
precipitously, some four miles back from the sea, where the 
land is only three miles wide, having the Cape Mount river 
on the west side, and the sea beach on the east side. As 
the mount rises in height, it spreads out in breadth, and 
thus gives a turn to the course of the river, until it comes 
within three-fourths of a mile of the sea, then it turns south- 
wardly and dips into the sea, while the river keeps its bear- 
ings, and empties into the Atlantic, with a mouth some 
three hundred feet wide. Thus a triangle of bottom land is 
made of one hundred and twenty acres on the west side of 
one of the cliffs; then the Mount takes a south-eastern 
course, sloping off till it comes down to the coast level, 
some six miles distant. The town, which is called Roberts- 
port, is laid off on the north-western cliff that comes down 
to the sea. This is a gradual rise of one hundred and fifty 
feet; then it descends some fifty feet, and again it rises to 
meet one of the highest points. As you stand on this first as- 
cent, the land spreads off to the right hand, with improved 
town lots, here and there on its side, until it unites with the 
bottom land of one hundred and twenty acres, while the 
land on your left hand descends gradually to the bottom of 
a ravine that gently passes you up on the sides of another 
small cliff, presenting to you other settlers on their town 
lots, while before you, is the great sea, where "God layeth 
the beams of his chambers." It is a healthy location, and 
will look well from shipboard when its streets are distinctly 
laid out, the houses tastefully built, and the grounds are 
adorned with the tropical fruits and flowers of the country. 
As I kept a diary while I was in Liberia, I will will give my 
observations of Liberia, in that form, with this change. I 
have made additions to points and things referred to, the day 
I made the entry of them, when I obtained additional infor- 
mation in regard to them. This plan saves repetition, and 
makes the journal more concise. 

December 20. The thermometer in the cabin, at six A. M., 
was 81°. On deck, 76^; a difference of 5°. It being the 
Sabbath, I went on shore to attend public worship. On the 
sea beach, many of the Liberians, and their children, met our 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



IT 



company from the ship. As I stood near to a group of youth, 
I asked them if they could spell and read. I gave out to 
them words, promiscuously, to spell, of two to four syllables. 
With promptness, with one exception, they spelt the words 
correctly. I passed on to the Receptacle put up by the 
American Colonization Society for the occupancy of emi- 
grants for six months after landing at this place. The emi- 
grants who had been living in it for the last six months, had, 
the week before our arrival, left it to go on their own lots. 
The building is ninety-six feet long, thirty-six feet wide, 
and two stories high, with a hall on each floor, eight feet 
wide, furnishing twelve rooms, 14 by 15 feet, on each floor, 
having nine feet pitch. It stands on stone hutments. The 
steward occupies one room, the physician another room for 
his office, and the general agent of the American Society, 
who has in charge the provisions for the emigrants, occupies 
another room for his office. Three rooms on the first floor 
are thrown into one for a dining room A family not to ex- 
ceed seven members, including parents and the small chil- 
dren, occupy a room. The grown children, with other sin- 
gle adults, according to the sex and ages, are placed in sepa- 
rate rooms, but in no case to exceed six in number in the 
room. The cost of the building, as it stands, was $6,500. 
The steward is furnished once a week, by the general agent, 
with provisions sufficient for all the emigrants. This is done 
for six months. The allowance served out is at the rate that 
rations are given out in the United States Army. The sick 
have nurses to attend them, under the direction of the doctor. 
Fresh provisions are purchased and served out to the emi- 
grants, under the supervision of the doctor. The doctor at- 
tends to the emigrants during the six months without any 
charge to them. After the end of the six months, each em- 
igrant pays his own doctor's bill, if he makes one. The 
American Colonization Society pays from $1,200, to $1,500. 
to the doctor, the agents, and nurses, who attend every em- 
igration that occupies the Receptacle six months. I attend- 
ed public worship at 11 o'clock, A. M., in the hall on the 
second floor in the Receptacle, and preached to a congrega- 
tion of one hundred and thirty persons. The Methodist de- 
nomination hold their worship in this hall on the Sabbath. 
There is a Baptist church organized in this place, but the 
church has no minister. There are twelve members of the 
Presbyterian church, but they have no church organization 
here. A Cumberland Presbyterian Minister from Kentucky 
is endeavoring to gather persons into his communion. There 
are day and Sabbath schools in the town. After worship, a 
marriage was solemnized according to rules of the Methodist 
2 



18 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



church. The groom presented to the minister his license to 
be married. The law requires a license signed by the clerk 
of the county court to make a marriage lawful. The party 
requiring a license, gives bond and security in the sum of $200, 
that there is no legal barrier to his entering into the proposed 
relation. If it be proved afterwards, the parties have acted 
contrary to this requirement, they are expelled from the Re- 
public, and the person performing the marriage ceremony 
for unlicensed parties, is fined at the discretion of the Court 
of Sessions. All persons, who, at the time of their arrival 
in Liberia, shall be cohabiting together as husband and wife, 
previous to their admission to the rights and privileges of cit- 
izens, are cited by the clerk of the county court to appear, 
and in his presence, and the presence of each other, sol- 
emnly to acknowledge and declare themselves to be bound- 
en, and lawful man and wife; and the clerk is required to 
make a record of the acknowledgment, as a full and suffi- 
cient evidence of the marriage of the parties. Parties wish- 
ing a divorce, have to take a prescribed course of law to 
bring their petition before the Court of Quarter Sessions; 
which court is clothed with power to grant such petitions, 
but in no case, except for the cause of infidelity or adultery, 
either in the wife or husband. 

I dined with the Methodist minister. We had for dinner, 
roast chickens, baked pork, cassada, sweet potatoes, greens, 
and beans. The pork was from the United States; the rest 
of the articles were the products of the town. Cassada is a 
shrub that grows, ordinarily, five feet high, having a top like 
unto the elder bush. The stalk is full of joints or eyes from 
the bottom to the top. When the cassada is ripe, the stalk is 
pulled up. and is cut in four to six inch pieces, and can be 
planted forthwith for another crop. They can be planted at 
any time in the dry season, but March is the best time. In 
eight months the root is fit to eat, but is much better for food, 
as well as larger, if allowed to grow fifteen months. The 
stalks are planted three to four in number in hills, three to 
four feet apart. The yield is abundant on good soil, if well 
cultivated. Some of the tubers are fifteen inches long, and 
five to eight inches in circumference. They are very sweet 
and palatable when boiled or baked, or roasted. They have 
a rough brown skin. Excellent starch is made out of them, as 
my own linen proved to me. The natives make cassada 
their principal food; and, probably, it is raised for food by 
Liberians, more than any other esculent root. I have seen 
hogs, sheep, goats, and cattle eat of the cassada with avidity. 
Sweet potatoes can be raised for every month in the year. 
The best time to plant them is before the rainy season sets 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



19 



in. Some think they yield more on clay land than in sandy 
land. When dug, the vines are forthwith planted, leaving 
out the ends. Cabbage grows from three to five feet high, 
with leaves putting out from the body of the stalk, up to its 
top; but it is very rare, I was told, that a head is formed. It 
was a strange sight to see a bed of the stalks standing thick, 
thus tall and slender. They looked as much out of nature's 
course in the cabbage line, as the ostrich of Africa appears 
out of her course in the feathered kind. The greens were 
nevertheless good. Beans grow all the time in the year. In 
the garden of the minister was a bower of lima bean vines, 
that had been planted two years, showing the blossom, 
the ripe bean fit for table use, and the dry bean ready for 
planting. The vines would thus bear for four years. Fowls 
and moscova ducks were in every yard. The African fowl 
is very small, but has been crossed vi^ith imported fowls. It 
is a very easy matter to raise fowls in this country. I drank 
water of two different springs, which was soft, sweet, and 
clear. It is a little tinctured with iron ore which abounds in 
the clifl^s. It is impossible to describe my sensations in look- 
ing around, and seeing, in the month of December, all kinds 
of vegetation as green and flourishing as it is in June in 
Kentucky. The leaves on the trees were green and full 
grown, as if they were never otherwise. I had occasion, 
after to-day, to notice this appearance. The trees, except 
the cotton tree, are always presenting the mass of their 
leaves green and full formed. I was reminded of the hair 
of our heads in our vigor of youth. Our heads would show 
constantly the same fulness of hair, and yet there would be 
found every day, a few hairs that would yield to the slightest 
pressure of the comb — so of the trees of Liberia. Some of 
their leaves would daily fall off', but you cannot see the par- 
ticular spot they fell from, the tree being so full of leaves. 
The cotton tree is a large, tall, noble looking tree. It drops 
all of its leaves in the month of December, and puts forth her 
buds, and shows a new formed leaf in the middle and the 
last of January. I returned to the ship wondering at what I 
saw in this land. The thermometer, on shore, at 3, P. M., 
was 84°. In the cabin, at 7, P. M., 82°. 

December 21. At an early hour in the morning all was 
bustle on board of the ship. The emigrants who are to stop 
here are to be landed to-day. The thermometer, in the 
cabin, at 7, A. M., was 80°. On shore, at 8, A. M., 74o. The 
first house I went to, I saw in the yard a cow and calf. With 
assistance, I measured the cow. She was three feet high, 
and three feet six inches long, from the horns to the root of 
the tail. The calf was five months old, and larger, in proper- 



20 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



tion to age, than the cow. The cow was six years old, and 
gave a quart of milk at a milking. The calf run with the 
cow. I visited the houses of the settlers promiscuously, to 
see how the people lived, to learn where they were from, and 
to ascertain if they were contented with their new home. 
The first emigration direct from the United States to this 
place, was in 1856. I found two unmarried women, and 
one man, anxious to return to the United States; and came 
across several persons who did not get along well; but they 
admitted they could do better, if they tried specially to do so. 
I will not say I went to every family; but there was scarcely a 
house but what I passed, and had a word of enquiry with its 
occupants. I found the people, as a body, in good health. 
They were decently clad. The general remark made by 
them, was, it is difficult for us to make a good support on our 
land, though what we plant grows fast and abundant. They 
did not express any dissatisfaction at their being in Africa. 
It was, they said, our country. In answer to my question, 
wherein do you feel it is your country? they said, we have 
our own families to ourselves; our children grow up under 
our own care, and our labor is. for ourselves. In many of 
them, I discovered that the enjoyment of liberty expressed 
itself in their manners and actions. They showed in the 
work of their hands that they were willing to endure trials to 
obtain greater advantages from their liberty. In their con- 
versation, in their family relations, and in their connections 
to the society around them, they exhibited a manliness, and 
a demeanor, that I had not been accustomed to see in this 
class of persons. I saw that they had to forego many of the 
things and advantages they had been accustomed to have: 
for example, they had not a daily supply of bacon, nor had 
they beasts of burden to plow the ground. Their work was 
done by the spade and hoe. They were limited to a quarter 
of an acre of land to cultivate, except a few of them. And 
their diet was much of esculent roots, though rich and nour- 
ishing, yet what they had never been used to before their ar- 
rival in Africa. It was not strange to me, when I reminded 
some of them of the counties in Virginia that they had come 
from, to see the strength of the cord of attachment to their 
old homes. The workings of the countenance, I thought, 
told of a child left behind, or of the rememberance of com- 
panions of their youth, or the scenes they had often witness- 
ed; but wiping away a tear, the manly sentiment was utter- 
ed, well, this will be a good home by and by, to us, but espe- 
cially to our children. Every inch of ground was improved 
by the industrious, and by some, with taste, as a flower bor- 
der would show. The act of the Liberian Legislature, in 



HBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



21 



laying off this town, says, ''the lots in said town shall be one- 
quarter of an acre of land; and adjacent, there shall be farm 
lots laid out, of ten acres, each." It is also the general 
law of Liberia, "that each settler, on his arrival in Liberia, is 
entitled to draw a town lot, or a plantation; that every mar- 
ried man, shall have for himself, a town lot, or five acres 
of farm land, together with two more for his wife, and one 
acre for each child that may be with him, provided, always, 
that no single family shall have more than ten acres ; also, 
that women, not having husbands, and attached to no family 
besides their own, shall receive a town lot, or two acres of 
farm land, on their own account, and one acre on account of 
each of their children; and unmarried men, of the age of 
twenty-one years, arriving in Liberia, from abroad, and all 
those who attain their majority, while resident in Liberia, and 
having taken the oath ot allegiance, are admitted to draw a 
building lot, or five acres of farm land, on the same condi- 
tions as married men;" but not one ten acre lot, nor five acre 
lot, nor one two acre lot, has been laid off at Cape Mount for 
emigrants. The Superintendent at Cape Mount told me, 
that all the land at the Cape, suitable for it, was to be laid 
off in town lots; and the farm lots were to be laid off twelve 
miles up the Cape Mount river. A few of the settlers have 
bought a quarter of an acre adjoining their quarter, at $30, 
the price asked by the government for a lot. Every alter- 
nate lot is claimed by the government as its own, to sell. 
Others have gone down on the tract of bottom land, and are 
cultivating it. The place is too straight for them. They 
cannot, as they are now situated, have cattle, sheep, and 
hogs. Nor can they raise enough on their quarter of an acre 
to barter and obtain animal food as much as they want. It 
is true they cannot starve, nor will "their strength wax old" 
on what industry can produce from their town lots; but that 
is no reason they should be placed on a quarter of an acre 
of ground for the present time. The number of the town lots 
laid out, is four hundred and nineteen. Of this number, one 
hundred and forty-four have been drawn by the settlers. 
The half of the four hundred and nineteen lots belong to the 
Liberian Government; which is 209 lots. There are but 
sixty-five lots left to be drawn by emigrants to be landed to- 
day. If the eighty-nine emigrants, on landing, draw lots 
here, more lols must be laid off for other emigrants that are 
sent here to settle. Where is their farm land to belaid off? 
The population of the place to-day, is five hundred. Of this 
number, there are but twenty-five mechanics, all told, count- 
ing those of this day's landing. The farmers need, and must 
have farm lands. It is preposterous to think of the farmers 



22 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



going by canoes twelve miles up the river to cultivate their 
land. Already, most of their limited means have been, from 
the necessity of their situation, expended on their lots, clear- 
ing of them, putting up their houses, inclosing the lots, and 
planting them. And v^^ith all this expenditure, farmers are 
on a quarter of an acre of land. They can raise fowls and 
ducks; but a pig, or goat, or sheep, they cannot raise. Salt 
pork; at the store, sells at twenty to twenty-five cents per 
pound, and flour at twelve and a half cents per pound. 
While I believe that salt meat is not necessary for the in- 
habitants of this climate, yet, those who have always been 
accustomed to it, cannot be weaned from it altogether sud- 
denly, with contentment of mind. And where they are dis- 
posed to take fresh meat in its place, where is their farm 
land that it may be raised thereon? And do they not want 
land to raise something to sell for exportation that will de- 
mand cash for it? This land arrangement is bad policy, 
whether we look at the prosperity of the people, or at the 
revenue to the public treasury to be derived from their labor. 
The inhabitants deserve, at the hand of Liberia, better ar- 
rangements for their welfare; and the great confidence that 
masters, and free persons of color have placed in the fidelity 
of the American Colonization Society, to see that the emi- 
grants are well and judiciously located, demands of the So- 
ciety to have other arrangements made in regard to the forced 
location of emigrants at this town, or any other town, on 
town lots. I say forced; for the emigrants have had to take 
town lots, or to move to some other place to them unknown. 
They are inexperienced persons, it is true; but of such is to 
be the bone of the land. B}^ their industry much land had 
been cleared; many buildings had been put up, and many 
things were cultivated for the support of the people. I 
counted eighty-five houses. It will be remembered it was 
in 1856 this town was commenced. The houses were of 
bamboo, covered with native thatches, or were made of 
round poles, and boarded or daubed with clay, with a shingle 
or clap-boarded roof, or with thatches worked together by 
the natives, and sold for that purpose. The cost of these 
buildings would vary from S30 to $45. There were two 
frame buildings, the cost of one was $300, the other $350. 
There was a kiln of brick being put up to be burnt for the 
erection of a Cumberland Presbyterian Church, at the cost of 
$5 50 per thousand. The clay was tough, and free from 
gravel, and the moulded brick gave a very clear ring. I no- 
ticed a great many ant hills. They were of clay, and were 
made by the ant called bug-a-bug. It is a red ant, the size 
of our black ants. They are destructive to framed houses, 



LIBERIA, A3 I FOUND IT. 



23 



and to fencing of the live plumb. The hills, or more prop- 
erly mounds, are thirty feet in circumference, rising to the 
height of eight feet, and tapering off at the top to two or 
three feet in diameter. The ants, I was told, made a large 
chamber within the mound, but it is only for a temporary 
habitation, as they are abandoned, and others are made, by 
perhaps another colony. When deserted, the emigrants 
make use of the clay, which has been thoroughly worked 
over by the ants, for mortar to daub their houses, or to make 
a hard and smooth dirt floor in their houses. The inside of 
many of the houses have a matting made by the natives, 
hung from the ceiling, to answer as a division wall; and they 
are also used as a substitute for plastering the sides of their 
rooms. The rooms looked clean, the beds comfortable, and 
in many instances, there was a show of crockery and glass 
lamps, and mahogany chairs, that bespoke a kindness of 
feeling for them when they left the plantation of their birth. 
Many of the town lots were inclosed with poles made out of 
limbs taken from the living plumb tree, or physic tree. They 
are cut six feet long, and one end is stuck in the ground on 
the line of the lot, and they take root, and become a living 
hedge. The greatest danger to their growth was the con- 
duct of the bug-a-bug toward them. They would, with clay 
taken up by them, build cells or lodgements on the eyes of 
the buds. Whether this act, or whether they inserted from 
themselves a poison that mingled with the sap, I cannot tell; 
but I saw frequently that the tree, or what would have been 
a tree, was dead. But it can easily be replaced. Lumber 
was sold at $3 to $4 per hundred; and nails, no matter what 
the size, at 12^ cents per pound. Their reliance for lumber 
is on the whip saw. Six of them were kept constantly at 
work. The logs were chiefly brought down the river, be- 
cause of convenience in getting them to the saw pit. 

I went into the dining room of the Receptacle at the din- 
ner hour. If the emigrants are furnished each day of the 
six months they are in the Receptacle, as the table exhibited 
to-day, they will not have occasion to complain of being 
stinted in food for six months. I dined at the private table 
in the Receptacle, and had for dinner, chickens, fresh fish, 
cassada, sweet potatoes, rice, and baked plantains. Rice is 
the great production of the natives. What they do not need 
for themselves they sell to the Liberians. If there be a fail- 
ure in their raising of it, the natives not only suff'er for want 
of it, but the Liberians also suffer, so far as rice is a part of 
their diet. For the Liberians do not raise it as much as their 
own consumption of it demands. The reasons why the Li- 
berians do not generally raise it, are: 1. The best crop is 



24 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



raised in the wet season. This requires too great an expo- 
sure of their health to weed rice in the rains. As the natives 
oil their bodies every day, and are accustomed to all the 
changes of the weather, they can safely be out in the rains, 
and weed the rice. 2. The Liberian family has not force 
enough to keep the rice birds off from the rice, which are 
numerous and destructive, but the natives having their rice 
fields in common, have a force to watch the birds, and that 
in the rains. Two crops of rice can be raised in the year; 
but the natives confine themselves chiefly to one crop. The 
rice is sowed in April, and is gathered in August. The 
second crop is sowed in October, and is gathered in January 
and February. Wet land is the best for it, though I saw 
small patches of it on high land, sowed in drills. By wet 
land is meant the low land near to streams of water which 
is kept moist by the rains that fall in the wet season. The 
rice is sweet and good; but owing to the imperfect method 
of cleaning it, (which is b}^ pounding it in a mortar, and 
then separating the husk from the grain hy a kind of win- 
nowing fan,) it has a reddish cast on the table, from portions 
of the husk adhering to the kernel. It formerly was sold at 
thirty-seven to forty -four cents per kroo or half bushel; but 
owing to a great scarcity of it a year ago, it has been sold 
as high as two dollars per kroo. At this time it is selling for 
seventy-five cents to one dollar a kroo. Perhaps more rice 
is raised by the natives living back of Cape Mount than is 
raised in any one district in Liberia. I have referred to a 
wet season. There is a dry season and a wet season in Li- 
beria, that its agricultural productions have much to do 
with. The wet or rainy season commences, I was told, in 
May. Though but little rain falls in that month compara- 
tively with succeeding months, yet more falls in that month 
than in the preceding months. June has more rain than any 
month in the year. Rarely does twenty-four hours pass but 
rain falls either in the day or night. July, August, September, 
and October are rainy months. In the latter part of July to the 
middle of August, but little rain falls. It does not rain all 
the time; but very constant showers, and sometimes very 
heavy rains fall. This is of course the coolest season in the 
year, and to Liberians it is so cool as to require warmer 
clothing than is needed in the summer season. The dry 
season commences in November, and closes with April. The 
rains that fall in these months, are in showers that last but 
a short time. In the seven weeks I was there, I noticed six 
showers — four of them before 5 A. M. The sun shines in 
these months with less clouds passing before its rays, and 
the heat is more regular. The thermometer in the wet sea- 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



25 



son ranges from 65° to 73°. In the dry season from 74° to 
86°. There are days when it will fall lower than 63^, and 
rises higher than 86°, as I myself witnessed in the month of 
January. The heat is very much tempered in the dry sea- 
son, as the cold is increased by the land and sea breezes. The 
sea breeze rises at 10 A. M., and blows until 10 P. M. Then 
there is a suspension of all breezes for two hours, and it is hot 
in January in those hours, as my person would prove to me 
every night. The land breeze would set in about half past 
twelve in the night, and blow until 9 A. M. About 10 A. M. 
I judged to be the hotest part of the daylight; but the breeze 
rises and soon gives a refreshing air to the person. The 
plantain I had for dinner grows on a shrub that is seven to 
eight feet in height, with leaves from five to six feet long, 
and about two feet broad, of a deep rich green. The shrub 
is about twelve to fifteen inches in circumference. It is im- 
portant while the shrub is growing to cut off many of the 
leaves, that the fruit may be more perfect in its growth, and 
other shoots putting out from the roots to bear another crop, 
may have a mutual benefit of the sap. The fruit hangs from 
a stock that puts out from the top of the shrub. The blos- 
som is on the end of this stock, some eight inches from the 
fruit, and is like in form to a beefs heart. When the blos- 
som begins to dry, the bunch of plantains can be taken from 
the shrub, and be hung up to mature, and be taken off' from 
the stock as they are needed. There is but one bunch of 
plantains on a shrub. In that bunch there will be from 
eighty to one hundred plantains, each one from eight to nine 
inches long, and an inch to an inch and a quarter in thick- 
ness, having the form of a long green cucumber. The 
shrub is cut down when the stalk of plantains is ripe to be 
gathered, when another shrub is coming forward to do as its 
predecessor did. They can be increased at pleasure. They 
ripen in seven months. A person having a number of shrubs 
can have fruit year after year, and in its different seasons. 
The fruit, when gathered, is of a light faint green, and 
when matured for use, is yellow. The rind is taken off" and 
it is baked, boiled or fried. And a most delicious dish it is, 
prepared for the table either way. When half ripe, they 
are boiled and pies are made out of them. They make a 
good beer lor table use, and when boiled and dried, the 
pieces are broken up fine, and it is made into bread. "It is 
said, that in the West Indies, three dozen plantains are esti- 
mated as sufficient to serve a man one week, instead of bread, 
and will support him much better." American Encyclo- 
pedia. 



26 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



After dinner, I visited the Garrison that was, for it is now 
not needed. It is three-fourths of a mile in a direct line from 
the Receptacle, and one mile and a quarter by the way of a 
small settlement of the Vey tribe, on the beach, near to the 
mouth of Cape Mount river. This settlement consists of 
some one hundred and twenty men and women, and chil- 
dren, who come down in such numbers, alternately, during 
the dry season, to boil the salt water of the ocean for salt. 
The tribe has its main settlement seven to ten miles up the 
river. At this settlement on the beach, I found the King of 
the tribe. The women were boiling salt in the different 
houses (the place for entrance is left open) in iron pots, 
holding from one to three gallons. They brought the sea 
water in brass kettles and wooden kegs. The heat of the 
fires, and the size of the boiling vessels showed that time 
was not worth much in making salt. The salt was black. 
They sold it to the interior tribes for seventy-five cents per 
kroo. The King was sitting in his hammock with his feet 
resting on the ground. He was in his sitting room, which 
was an open shed, its front facing the west, and the south 
and east sides of it were covered with rushes down to the 
ground. There was an attache on the north side of it 
where his wives slept. In the back part of his parlor were 
some of his wives boiling salt water, and they differed in 
age, but not in dress. My appearance drew a number of 
the men in front of the King's residence; and in the door- way 
of the attache stood several women gazing at mj/56?/f. / had 
never before seen a King, and the King and his people had 
never seen me before. But I did not have to stand in the 
King's presence, for he ordered a stool to be brought for me 
to sit on. He had on his head a figured woolen cap, and 
difl^erent trinkets around his neck, on his wrists, and around 
his ancles. His feet were shod with course untied brogues, 
made, I had no doubt, in one of our Eastern states, for where 
else are such shoes made. A large cloth was thrown over 
his body, leaving one arm bare. He nor myself (and I 
thought so of his female household) were not embarrassed. 
The King talked in English \evy v^^eXX ^ov ^ foreigner. Our 
conversation was chiefly in regard to the slaves in his tribe, 
the apprenticeship system among the French, what his tribe 
raised, and whether he was willing to have a missionary 
live in his tribe and teach the people what the only true God 
required of mankind, his creatures, and open a school to 
teach his children, book, as they style all writing and printing. 
He said he wanted a missionary, and wished to know of me 
if I would begin right away to open a school for his people. 
I inquired after his household, and how many wives he had. 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



27 



With a playful smile, as if he had often thought of the mat- 
ter, giving his head a slight toss, he replied, twenty-two. I 
did not think it was becoming in me to inquire after his do- 
mestic peace, and he arrested my reflections, about his di- 
lemmas, that Jacob of old was often placed in by Dinah, by 
his catching hold of a little naked fellow near by, and pre- 
senting him to me with fatherly pride, saying, "this be one 
of my child." Of course I did not express my doubts to him. 
A small boy had been standing by the King during all this 
interview, holding something in a saucer with a spoon, for 
the King to eat. In answer to my question what it was, he 
said it was rice and pea nuts pounded together and boiled 
with some palm oil, and requested me to try it. I took out 
my knife and cut off a piece of it, believing it was not in 
taste to eat of his spoon. All were apparently pleased at my 
method of getting a piece to eat; and I was gratified in eat- 
ing the article. It was pleasant to eat. and must be a nour- 
ishing diet. The tribe trade in fresh meat, rice, mats, ham- 
mocks, and native work, and receive in pay, cloth, tobacco, 
rum, powder, &c. I saw in a yard goats and kids. Before 
leaving the presence of the King, Mamma Sally, as she is 
styled, came to make the King an afternoon's call. She is a 
widow, and a daughter of a deceased native King. Her 
husband w^as a Liberian, by the name of Curtis. He emi- 
grated from the United States in 1823, and left the Liberian 
settlements in 1834, and united wath his wife's tribe, and be- 
canie an active slave trader. He was killed some years 
back in his tribe. Mamma Sally is a large woman, weigh- 
ing at least two hundred and twenty pounds. She lives near 
to the Garrison. Her head was the most attractive part of 
her person. Her hair was braided in very small fine strands, 
and placed in such regular and tasteful forms, as to look like 
a turban placed on her head by one of her maids of honor. 
(Three of them accompanied her wherever she goes.) Not 
being a knight of her bed chamber, I cannot tell how she dis- 
poses of it, nor what arrangement she makes of it, when she 
retires to her bed, if she has one. Her wrists and ancles 
were adorned with various trinkets, including silver coins of 
diff*erent sizes and value. She moved about with great state, 
half covered with, a large cotton cloth. She has several 
slave? who do her work, if it may be called w^ork. I left 
the royal personages, and took a path that led to the Garri- 
son, now abandoned as a fortification. The nine and twelve 
pounders scattered around, told me they had been brought 
here to do service, if needed. I am happy to say they were 
never used against the natives, and I think, if a proper 
course is pursued w^th them, the cannon will never be needed. 



28 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



The Superintendent of the Town of Robertsport lives here, 
whose office is similar to that of a Mayor of a City. Some 
twelve of the houses which had been used as quarters by 
the soldiers, were now occupied by some natives, some Libe- 
rians, and Mamma Sally's train. The military force of the 
town is one hundred and twenty-five men, with tw^o twelve 
pound cannon, and two four pounders, four casks of pow- 
der, and a good supply of cannon ball. All the men are sup- 
plied with guns, and a greater number of persons could be 
enrolled to do military duty from those who have arrived 
within the last seven months. Near to the Garrison is a fine 
bold spring of w^ater that comes from the Mount. It is sweet 
and soft water. I put the thermometer in the water just 
where it escapes from under a rock, and it stood at 76°. 
In returning to the town, I passed through the bottom land I 
have referred to. It was a black loam covering a yellow 
clay, tree from gravel; which clay, when the loam was ta- 
ken off, was good to make brick of Some of the Liberian 
settlers had planted most of this ground in cassada, sweet 
potatoes, beans, melons, and cucumbers. I passed a bold 
stream that came from another cliff near to the base of the 
cliff that a portion of the town is built on, which stream fur- 
nished water for all domestic purposes to the people on the 
west side of the town. The thermometer, at 3, P. M., was 
86°. I had gone through the day, suffering no more from 
the heat than if I had been walking about in Kentucky in 
the months of July or August. When I returned to the ship, 
at 7, P. M., I learned that eighty-nine emigrants, viz: sixty 
over twelve years of age, and twenty-nine under that age, 
had been landed at Robertsport, and placed in the Recepta- 
cle where I had seen them at dinner. When the ship sails 
from the United States, the General Agent of the American 
Colonization Society specifies the number of emigrants 
who are to stop at different places in Liberia to acclimate. 
The owners, or executors, or agents of Colonization Socie- 
ties, or the free persons themselves, can express a wish where 
they should be landed. Otherwise the General Agent de- 
cides upon the place, and puts on board provisions to supply 
the number for the six months, at the place they will accli- 
mate. This is an important arrangement to secure a supply 
of provisions for the number put on shore at each specified 
place where the ship stops at. 

December 22. The thermometer in the cabin, at 7, A. M., 
was 81°. When 1 went on shore, I was struck with the 
heavy dews that fall here during the night; and also, that 
house flies are not seen. In this day's ramble, I found new 
clearings were going on, and new houses were being put up. 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



29 



In some lots there is more rock coming up to the surface 
than an emigrant would want on a quarter of an acre. The 
rock is called by the masons flint rock. They heat it by 
building a fire upon it, then pour water on it, and by a bar 
of iron, break it. Time will teach them to drill and blast. 
I came across two other springs to-day, and a well dug ten 
feet, with two feet of water in it. I was told that in the 
rainy season the well was full of water. The water in the 
well and springs was 76°. I made a general inquiry as to 
the virtue of the people, and was glad to learn that the lo- 
cation of the families in their separate habitations with their 
children, and the conspicuousness of their position as fami- 
lies, necessarily led to a good social and moral change in the 
habits of the body of the people. It is a law of Liberia, 
that if any woman shall have a bastard child, she, by exam- 
ination upon oath, shall state who is .the father of the child; 
and the father of it (if evidence cannot be adduced by him 
to ■ show that he is not its father) is required to give 
bond and security for its maintenance, at the rate of one dol- 
lar per week, as long as the child may be likely to become a 
public charge. If the mother will not testify to the parent- 
age of the child, and she is not able to support the child, she 
is hired out from time to time to pay the public charge of sup- 
porting the child. If the mother is able to support the child, 
she gives bond and security for the maintenance of the 
child. Without virtue is sustained by this people, they can 
never sustain a civih'zed life. In my walk I came into a 
clearing ontside of the town lots. Here I found a woman 
from North Carolina, by the name of Sheridan. She had 
six children, four of them (tv/o sons and two daughters) 
were over fifteen years of age, and under twenty-two years. 
She came to this place seven months ago. She refused to 
take a town lot, and while living the six months in the Re- 
ceptacle, she took her four oldest children, (and some days 
the other two children,) when their health and her own 
health w^ould allow it, and commenced working on the land 
she is now living on. She cut down the timber and burnt it 
on the ground, and planted cassada, eddoes, sweet potatoes, 
beans, pawpaw, plantain, and American corn, as she pre- 
pared the land. She built a log house with two rooms, so 
that when the six months expired, she left the Receptiacle, 
and moved into her own house, having four acres cleared. 
Thfit woman will live in Liberia with many comforts about 
her. She was warned not to make the improvements, for 
she could not draw the land as farm land; nor could she 
expect to receive compensation for her labor from the Gov- 
ernment. But she gave no heed to the warning. She had 



30 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



raised and laid aside a barrel of corn, that she might be cer- 
tain to have some to plant the next season. I got two ears 
of it. It was of the fourteen rowed kind, hard, and well fill- 
ed out. The ears were seven inches long. The American 
corn is planted in February or March, and is fit to gather in 
four months. The African corn, which in length, and the 
size of the kernel, is like unto our pop corn, is longer 
getting its growth than the American corn. The land this 
woman had squatted dow^n on was a rich clay mixed with 
sand. I reminded her of the poor sandy soil near to Eliza- 
beth City, North Carolina, where she came from, and she 
would launch forth in her own style about what she had 
done, and what she enjoyed in her adopted home. I shall 
remember this Carolina woman for her industry and perse- 
verance, and for having the good judgment to leave a large 
towering cotton tree within two hundred yards of her front 
door, which looked out on the Atlantic ocean. I returned to 
the town, and dined with Dr. Roberts, the physician, in the 
employ of the American Colonization Society at this place. 
We had for dinner, fresh beef, fresh fish, eddoes, bananas 
fried, sweet potatoes, African rice, and lima beans After 
dinner I drank a half tumbler of palm wine. The dinner was 
very palatable, and the wine very satisfactory to a teetotal- 
ler wherever he goes. The palm wine is the liquid that 
drops fi'om the palm tree. There is a pith called cabbage, 
that grows in the heart of the tree from the ground to its 
top. The tree is bored, as is done to the sugar tree, with 
this difference; in the palm tree, the cabbage is reached 
with the augur or borer. A spile is inserted, and a white li- 
quid something like milk and water in color gently flows out, 
which is called wine. It runs from twenty to forty gallons, 
according to the size of the tree. When all the liquid runs 
out of the cabbage, the tree dies. You can draw out occa- 
sionally a gallon or two from the tree, and filling up the hole 
tight^ you do not injure the tree. The wine is good, especi- 
ally to a temperance man, when it is fresh from the tree. It 
is then sweet, with a very pleasant acid. If it stands thirty 
hours it sours, and in two days it is a hard drink. The na- 
tives sometimes cut dow^n the palm tree to get the cabbage 
to eat. This was very extensively done by them during the 
great destitution of rice some twelve months ago. The law 
of Liberia forbids any one to cut down a palm tree on the 
public lands under a penalty of five dollars. The eddoe I 
eat of at dinner is sometimes called Tania, and is a bulbous 
root. It is planted in hills, bearing a stem that has broad 
leaves. Its taste is like that of the Mercer Irish potatoe. 
The eddoes put out from the root all around the stalk, and 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



31 



underneath the upper tier, a second tier puts out. The 
length is sometimes twelve inches, but generally it is six to 
eight inches long, and grows in a tapering form. Its yield is 
great when well attended to. It is planted in April and 
May, and is fit to eat in four to five months. An excellent 
starch is made from them. They are baked or boiled. The 
bananas grow in size, height, and leaf and blossom, like un- 
to the plantain. It is rich when eat raw, and delicious 
w^hen boiled or baked. It is not as large as the plantain, 
but is more nutricious than the plantain is. By proper at- 
tention a family can have them every day on their table. I 
learned from the doctor that there had been three emigra- 
tions to this town direct from the United States before our 
arrival. When the first arrival came, there were here, 
fifty-five of the volunteers and their families, which made in 
all, one hundred and forty-two. To this number, the first ar- 
rival added ninety-six; the second arrival added eighty 
more, and the third arrival, one hundred and twenty seven. 
Our expedition, the fourth arrival, added eighty-nine. The 
deaths among the emigrants of the three expeditions, were 
fort^^-three. It is a singular and striking fact, that in a pop- 
ulation that started with one hundred and forty-two, and in 
twenty months had increased, by emigration, to four hundred 
and eleven, there has not been added to the number, by birth, 
but nine children. When I returned to the ship, I learned 
that there had been landed for the six months supply of the 
eighty-nine emigrants landed on yesterday, the following 
provisions, viz: one sack of salt, seventeen barrels of mack- 
erel, four boxes of soap, three barrels of rice, twenty-five 
barrels of beef, twenty barrels of pork, two tierces of bacon, 
five kegs of butter, sixty barrels of flour, five barrels of 
brown sugar, four barrels of molasses, two half chests of 
tea, four bags of coffee, two barrels of vinegar, one box of 
mustard, two boxes of pepper, five barrels of kiln dried 
meal, and four boxes, and four bales of dry goods, and two 
bundles of United States muskets, to be sold to buy fresh 
provisions and to aid in defraying expenses. I supped on 
board, eating a portion of a steak from the same beef that 
had furnished me with a roast for dinner. It was tender 
and good. The price tw^elve and a half cents per pound. 
Fresh beef will not keep in this climate over forty hours. 
The beef referred to had been furnished by the natives. In 
this town I had found but three bullocks, three sheep and 
two goats. 

December 23. The thermometer in the cabin, at 7, A. M., 
was 82o. I went on shore, having the company of a fellow 
passenger from Maine, a white man, who had come to this 



32 



LIBERIA^ AS I FOUND IT. 



country with the hope of doing some good to the natives. 
My plan was to take a tour over the cliffs, and down them, to 
see if any land could be found for farming purposes. I ob- 
tained a Liberian hunter to go with us, having taken a lunch 
for our journey. Of course our travel was on foot. We took 
up through the town to the height of the cliff it is chiefly 
built upon, then descended some fifty feet, and commenced 
rising another clifT. Our course bore north-east by east. Our 
path was a hunter's path winding its way over rocks and 
fallen trees, up and down. We stopped here and there, 
looking down, and going down, then looking up, and going 
up. We were in the mountains. The trees were large, and 
w^ould furnish logs that would cut much lumber. But who 
or what will roll away the great stones that the logs may 
find the bottom of the mount to be sawed up. Here was no 
land for the hoe, or the plough. At twelve, noon, we came 
to a narrow space of stony ground that the hunter said was 
the greatest rise of the cliffs. We could see on the right 
hand, the Atlantic, and on the left hand, we saw the same 
ocean; but we could see no farming land. We decided to 
turn off, and go south, down the cliff. The thermometer 
was 76° on the top of the cliff. The hunter had a sharp 
strong steel cutlass. We had to cut our imy down the side 
of the cliff. The vines were entangled with each other, and 
varied in size from a fourth of an inch to three inches. But 
they were so full of sap that the largest of them were cut 
with a heavy blow. We would stop and notice w^here the 
deer had rubbed against a tender shrub, or where the wild 
hog had been rooting but a few hours ago, or to listen to the 
mourning sound of a bird that mourned as the owl mourns 
in a still night at home. Then the hunter would look 
around to judge where to select a route to get down the 
easiest way. It was a strange place for me to be in. But, 
onward, God will direct in the matter of African Coloniza- 
tion, has been my motto. Every step we knew was bring- 
ing us to the sea. The quick and accustomed ear of the 
htinter caught the gurgling sound of water. Looking at the 
thermometer, it was 80°. Soon we came to the water. Af- 
ter a good wash, we went a few steps back, sat down, drank 
the water out of our cup, eat our lunch, and in patience pos- 
sessed our souls in this dreary spot, knowing that the hand 
and eye of our Heavenly Father was on us, and helping us. 
The water was good, soft and clear, and cool to us. The 
thermometer said it was 76°. When we started from our 
resting place, we followed the course of the water but a 
short a distance, and we found ourselves down the mount we 
had been on. Here we met with another stream coming 



LIBEEIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



S3 



from the north-west, having a cliff on its west side. The 
two united in one, which we followed until we discovered it 
was leading us too far south-east to get back to the ship that 
night. Leaving the stream, we ascended a small cliff going 
south-west; the descent of which cliff brought us to water 
again. Crossing it, we ascended another small cliff, and the 
ocean roar struck on our ear. When we descended this 
cliff we came upon table land, not heavily timbered, the soil 
rich, of a brownish clay, running parallel with the coast 
north-west and south-east. We followed the sound of the 
surf on the shore, constrained to stop every now and then to 
eat ripe wild plumbs, the size of nectarines, and the meat 
like that of the peach, but not so juicy. When we came to 
the brink of this table land, it broke off precipitously to the 
sea beach. We judged from our position that this land 
might be three miles long, and its width three-fourths of a 
mile. A measurement might make it more, and it might 
make it less. It appeared to be cut off at its south-east end 
by a cliff that came down to the sea beach. We decided to 
turn our course north-west to find the town. We passed 
along on this table land, looking at the various seed of some 
nameless fruit, or pod, that lay on the ground, asking if some 
kind of oil could not be extracted from it, when we came to 
water — a running stream, the temperature of which was 76°. 
As we approached the point where the Cape turns to run 
south-east, the tract of land widened. Paths soon told us 
we were on land that the hunters had trodden — and soon we 
found paths that had been made by those who had sought 
poles for their houses. Our way led us to an old lot occu- 
pied in former days by a half town of the Vey tribe, as I 
supposed. There was the banana, plantain, pawpaw, and 
pine apple, growing in their wild neglected state. Soon we 
came upon a small lot occupied by a native, who was culti- 
vating it after the fashion of the Liberians. Another turn, 
we came to the beach, and soon saw the towering cotton 
tree of the North Carolina woman. I take no credit of dis- 
covery to myself, but wondered, when conversing with Presi- 
dent Benson, in Monrovia, in regard to this tract of land, in 
the presence of Ex-President Roberts, who bought the tract, 
that Mr. Roberts should express ignorance of any land on 
that side of the mount, suitable for farming. There cer- 
tainly should be ?ii particular examination of land in Liberia, 
when it is decided to locate emigrants at the place. Farm- 
ing land should be near and back of a town, for the mutual 
support of town and country. I did not, in this day's jour- 
ney, see a tract of land that would support an agricultural 
community for a large population in Robertsport. In fact, 
3 



34 



LIBERIA, AS 1 fOUNB If. 



the present population should have all that I had seen. In 
this day's tour, I saw on the cliffs, bastard mahogany, rising, 
I thought, seventy feet, without limb, giving a log ten feet in 
diameter at the butt, and four feet at the topmost log. The 
Mckory runs up as straight as an arrow, varying from eigh- 
teen inches to two feet in diamter. The upland mango 
looked as if nature had had a freak, turning down the tree 
after having permitted it to grow in its natural way, and 
sticking, as it were, the top branches into the ground, direct- 
ing the roots to put out and grow as top branches. The tree 
stood on some thirty to forty standards like, that had grown 
up out of the ground, over a space of forty feet, without any 
connection above ground, to each other, and grew, enlarg- 
ing in size, and drawing toward each other, to meet some 
ten to twelve feet high, in a common centre, and form the 
body of a valuable tree for lumber, that grew great and 
high. The tree is indeed a singular sight, showing that na- 
ture, though she has general established laws, will do things 
in her own way, that are "marvelous in our eyes." I came 
to several conclusions at the end of my day's work. 1. No 
more emigrants should be landed at Robertsport, who are 
farmers, for the present. 2. That the emigrants already lo- 
cated here should have land surveyed out to them as soon 
as possible, and be furnished with it according to the law of 
Liberia, in distributing farm lands to emigrants. 3. That 
masters and executors, who send emigrants to Liberia, have 
a just claim upon the Liberian Government to have no em- 
igrants located where there is no farm land for farmers to 
draw on their arrival at the place. They should be able to 
draw land, that while they are supported by the society, 
.they may have it ready for their occupancy at the end of the 
six months. 5. There is a great risk run, that emigrants, 
who have families to support, and have no farm land to as- 
sist them to do it, will become dissatisfied and anxious to re- 
turn to their old homes. 

This settlement is so recent in its commencement, that the 
condition and prospect of its inhabitants cannot be a test of 
what Liberia is to the black man, who exchanges a resi- 
dence in the United States for it. What I saw, spoke favor- 
ably for the people as a community, and showed that they 
could get a good living if they had land to do it on. The germ 
of society was seen, that could, under the favorable circum- 
stances of temporal advantages, make the place a good 
home. But to have a home, we want all the advantages 
that our business in life requires us to have, to prosecute with 
vigor, and get the fruit. 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



35 



I have been here four days. The thermometer has ranged 
on shore from 82°, 7 A. M., to 86^ at 12, noon, and then re- 
turned to 82° or 81°, at 7 P. M. There are no white per- 
sons in this settlement. Carpenters wages are $1 25; ma- 
sons $1 50. The Liberians can buy of the natives back 
from the coast, bullocks at $10 to $15; sheep at $2 to $2 50, 
and goats at the same price. Dogs were plenty; and no 
emigrant need take with him, Tray, nor Blanche, nor Sweet- 
heart. They have cats sufficient to stock all future family 
demands in that line. Rorbertsport is a port of entry. In 
1857, the duties on imports were $99. The exports were 
two hundred and thirty-seven gallons of palm oil, one and a 
half tons of camwood, and twenty-nine pounds of ivory. 

December 24. At 5 o'clock, A.M., we weighed anchor for 

MONROVIA. 

The wind was light, but we had a strong cm-rent in our fa- 
vor. The thermometer at 7 A. M., was 81°. The distance 
from Cape Mount to Monrovia is forty miles. The sea coast 
is low, looking very much in height as that in the neighbor- 
hood of the Chesapeake Bay; but, here, the palm tree, and 
the cotton tree, are seen towering above all the other trees. 
At 9, P. M.. the atmosphere being very hazy, we came to 
anchor in six fathoms of water. A fathom is six feet. This 
haziness of the atmosphere is so dense on this coast, especi- 
ally at this season of the year, that we could not test by sight, 
what is a fact, that the north star cannot be seen in this lat- 
itude. 

December 25. The thermometer at 7, A. M., was 81°. This 
is Christmas day. All was activity on the sea board. I 
counted fifty canoes moving with the speed of racers, in this 
direction, and in that course, some fishing, and some coming 
to the ship to sell fish, or to get work. In fishing they throw 
out the line, tying the other end of it around their necks, 
and then paddle a head as fast as they can go. They soon 
tell if there be a bite at the bait by the pull of the fish on 
the cord around the neck. At the bow of the canoe is tied 
a strand of grass that is called gregrary. It is a supersti- 
tious expression of their belief that it secures safety to the 
boat and its owner. It was thirty-seven years ago on Mon- 
day of last week, (December 15, 1821,) that this land was 
purchased with the cognizance of the United States Govern- 
ment for the American Colonization Society, by Captain 
Stockton, of the United States navy, and Dr. Ayres, Agent 
of the Society. The purchase was made of the tribe that 
claimed the land. Possession was immediately taken of a 
small island in the Mesurado river, which was called Provi- 



36 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



dence Island. Shortly afterwards the emigrants moved on 
to the Cape. Providence Island since that time has been so 
washed by freshets, that now at high tide it is in two small 
strips of land, having a half dozen thatched native houses 
on them, with not land enough for a garden. When I went 
on shore, and passed through the streets, I was struck with 
the fact I was in the land of Africans. All the dwellers in 
Robertsport were blacks — but here, the town was laid out 
and improved. The race here presented themselves in an 
advanced state of improvement in every particular, of a dis- 
tinct community. I had indescribable feelings, not of mis- 
trust for my personal safety, nor of disgust at the race claim- 
ing and expecting equality of social position with me, but 
at seeing them in their present position in the absence of 
white persons. Here was to be seen the moulding of their 
own body politic. I saw around me respectful manners, bu- 
siness habits, and their attendant consequences, good dwel- 
lings. What I came to see, if it was practicable, that the 
black man could show a care of himself, that exhibited or- 
der, self-respect, comfort, social and political government, 
that was compatible with its continuance, I had evidence of 
it before my eyes. I was convinced I was in a well regula- 
ted town in its morals, its order, and cleanliness. I called 
on the President and others and delivered my letters of in- 
troduction. As I was in Rome, I meant to conform to Ro- 
manism in social intercourse, as it became my errand to the 
country. President Benson is a tall, slender framed gentle- 
man, easy in his manners, plain in his personal appearance, 
and very ready of speech. He is a descendant of the Afri- 
can race in a dii^ect line. He removed with his father from 
Maryland to Liberia, in 1822. He was six years old at that 
time — consequently he must be forty -two years of age now. 
He has received his education and formation of character in 
Liberia. He has been a Senator, a Judge, and Vice Presi- 
dent of the Liberian Republic, and is now the people's Pres- 
ident; for he has been selected to the office without opposi- 
tion. The officers of the Government of Liberia are elected 
by citizens who own real estate. None others can vote. The 
President holds his office for two years, but is reeligible to 
it. It is an office of great patronage. He nominates, and 
with the advice and consent of the senate, appoints, an4 
commissions, besides the members of his cabinet, and the 
embassadors, ministers and consuls, all judges of courts, 
sheriffs, coroners, marshals, justices of the peace, clerks of 
courts, registers, notaries of public, and all other offices of 
state, civil and military, whose appointment has not been 
provided for by the constitution or standing law. He can 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



37 



require information and advice from any public ofRcer, 
touching matters pertaining to his office. 

I dined with Mr. H. W. Dennis, and had for dinner, fresh 
beef, bacon, chickens, sweet potatoes, cassada, and paw 
paw. The pawpaw tree grows from ten to twelve feet 
high, putting out broad leaves near to its top. The branches 
are few, and the fruit grows close to the body of the tree, 
varying in size from a man's fist to a youth's head. There 
are fifteen to twenty pawpaws in a cluster. The fruit ri- 
pens in four to five months. When ripe, it is yellowish, hav- 
ing lost its green color. The tree is in its prime in two 
years, and bears fruit five years. When boiled in its green 
state, the taste of it is like that of cymblings; when baked, it 
is like that of a rich apple pie, and when a little lemon is 
grated with it, you would wonder what kind of richly fla- 
vored apple do they have in Liberia to make pies of. When 
eat raw, the taste is like that of the citron melon. In a green 
state, they make an excellent preserve. There are two kinds 
of them in Liberia, the English and native. But the differ- 
ence is said to be chiefly in size; the English being the 
largest. Probably this is owing to the change from its origi- 
nal latitude, the West Indies. 

Monrovia is built on Cape Mesurado. The Cape is in 6° 
19' north lat., and 10° 48' west long. It rises two and a half 
miles back, and runs west, into the ocean, with a termina- 
tion of two hundred and forty feet high. On this termina- 
tion, the light house stands, forty feet high, which can be 
seen in a clear night, fifteen miles at sea. On the north 
side of the mount, one third of a mile from its west end, a 
sand bar puts out, and runs north, three-fourths of a mile, 
averaging three^hundred yards wide. We allude to this bar 
from the fact that every few years it gets its formation, and 
then is swept away within a few yards of the base of the 
mount — thus showing on the one hand the powerful heav- 
ings of the ocean, and the force of the Mesurado river when 
swollen by heavy rains, on the other hand. At the north end 
of this bar, the Mesurado river empties into the sea, having 
the south-east end of Bushrod Island for three-fourths of a 
mile for its other bank. The bar of this river is very bad to 
cross at certain stages of the wind, and always in the rainy 
season of the year. In its best state of water only vessels of 
forty tons can cross it. In the heavy rains of the wet sea- 
son, the Mesurado river being swollen by its tributaries, 
rushes past the length of the mount with such force, that 
when it strikes the sand bar, it refuses to turn its course, 
and breaks the bar to the sea in a straight line, washing 
away the north point of the bar. In 1856 two-thirds of the 



38 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



bar I have noticed, was washed away by one of these fresh- 
ets, and since that time has been made as I have described 
it in its length and breadth. The time will probably come 
when a break-water will have to be built out from the Cape 
to make a better and more safe landing for Monrovia's im- 
ports and exports. And there is any quantity of stone at 
hand to do it at any time. When the bar is formed as it is 
now, it gives a curve to the river, and makes its channel on 
the eastern side of the sand bar. After crossing the bar, in 
the dry season, the water is smooth, and is mostly effected 
in its movements by the ebb and flow ol the tide. While 
lying off Monrovia, I crossed and recrossed the bar in the 
ship's boat, rowed by six oarsmen. At a certain stage of 
the tide, and a certain state of the wind, causing some swells 
from the mighty deep, under the guidance of our skillful 
Kroomen, it was very pleasant to cross it. At other times 
I was too much of a landsman to talk much in crossing it, 
and therefore sat in sober soliloquy — shall I be wet, or shall 
I not be wet. Near to the base of the mount on this sand 
bar is a settlement of Kroos containing some one hundred 
and thirty persons, living in fifty bamboo houses. Their res- 
idence here has been apparently of no moral advantage to 
them. They are natives still in dress, habits, and pursuits in 
life. 

The Cape has a false cape where it takes its eastern rise, 
and runs a south-eastern course one and three-fourths of a 
mile to the sea coast. Monrovia is laid out on the top, and 
on the north and south sides of the mount. At the bottom 
of the mount on its north side, ten stone ware-houses have 
been built, but in a very irregular line, on the banks of the 
river. The river Mesurado, abreast of the stores, is from 
two to two and a half fathoms deep. One of the stores is 
owned by the American Colonization Society to store away 
its stores for the six months support of the emigrants — an- 
other one is owned by a German trader, though the title of 
the land it sets on is held in the name of a Liberian — the 
rest of the ware-houses are owned by Liberians. It is the 
law of Liberia that "no person shall be entitled to hold real 
estate in the Republic unless he be a citizen of the same.'* 
By reason of the steepness of the mount you have to rise 
two-thirds of its ascent, (except in one part of the mount,) 
by circuitous foot paths. On this north side there are some 
thirty houses of small value, except those near to the sum- 
mit, which must have cost over $5,000 to build them; but 
they have no gardens, by reason of the rock spread out on 
the surface of the ground. The two main streets of Mon- 
rovia are Ashmun and Broadway. When you reach the top 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



39 



of the mount, you find the land gradually descends until it 
reaches the ocean, which is very distinctly seen from Ash- 
mun or Broadway streets. The main streets run east and 
west, and the cross streets run north and south: Ashmun 
street is a mile and a half long, having many very good brick 
and framed two story houses on it; some of them costly 
buildings, considering the price of materials here. The 
President's mansion, (bought by the Government for $14,- 
000,) the Ex-President's new residence, the dwellings of Dr. 
Gill, and his brother, James, the Methodist High School 
building, and its church, the court house, and many private 
pleasant houses are on this street. I allude to these houses 
because they indicate that much money was laid out in their 
erection. Broadway runs from the light house the whole 
length of the mount, two and a half miles, being one hun- 
dred feet wide. A wheelbarrow could not be rolled one 
quarter of a mile on that part of the street that leads up for 
that distance to the light house, because of the rocks stand- 
ing so numerous, so large, and so high in their distinct forma* 
tions in the street. All of them were more or less singularly 
worn in groves from their tops down on their sides, by the 
rains of heaven, which have been beating on them periodi- 
cally every year since the days of the flood. The rock is a 
hard granite, strongly impregnated with iron ore. They are 
so distinct in their masses, that when you remove one, it 
shows no adhesion to its neighbor under it. My surprise was 
great to see that some individuals had selected town lots to 
build on in this hard part of the town. The view from the 
top of the light house is grand and extensive. At the ex- 
treme eastern end of Broadway, the American Colonization 
Society has had put up during the past year a new Recepta- 
cle similar in size and cost, to that put up at Cape Mount. 
The Baptist and Presbj'terian churches are on this street, 
and also a number of stone, brick and frame dwellings. 
Some of the common framed dwellings showed marks of the 
visits of the bug-a-bug ant. On the other streets in the 
town, here and there are some good dwelling houses. The 
better class of buildings generally have an old appearance. 
This is owing to the sun and winds, which draws out oil in 
the paint that has been put on the houses. But this sombre 
appearance is partially removed from the eye, by the great 
variety of trees and shrubs in all their rich green herbage, 
that stand in the gardens and yards, and on the side walks — 
as the orange, the lime, the mango plumb, and the oleanthus. 
The soil is clay, mixed with sand; but owing to long cultiva- 
tion without manure, very few lots show productiveness. 
The streets much used Jire kept very clean. It is a law of 



40 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



Liberia that every male, between sixteen and fifty years, 
shall work one day, four times a year, to keep the streets 
clean in a town; and those living on farm lots, to keep the 
highways clean in their township; the time can, if neces- 
sary, be extended to twelve days in the year. If a person 
refuses to work, when notified, and has no valid reason for 
the neglect, he is fined a dollar for each day's refusal, and the 
fine, after, paying for its collection, goes to the benefit of the 
town to keep its streets clean. This law embraces all male 
natives from the age of sixteen years to sixty years, resident 
within the several townships. But as Monrovia is an in- 
corporated city, it raises money by taxation, to meet the ex- 
penses of keeping the streets clean, as well as for other 
purposes. I saw several persons in a chain gang doing the 
work of cleaning the streets. Such persons work to pay the 
fines laid on them for the crimes they have committed. Any 
person or persons punished by fine in any of the courts, can 
be put to public labor to satisfy the fine and costs, if not paid 
otherwise — so all persons convicted of any crime punishable 
by imprisonment, can be hired out with the express order to 
secure the criminal by a chain of sufficient strength to keep 
him from running away. Theft, in which the property sto- 
len shall not be more than three dollars in value, is petty lar- 
ceny; if the property stolen is more than three dollars in 
value, it is grand larceny — the punishment may be a time of 
labor. The time of a Liberian is valued at $6 per month, 
and that of a native is valued at $3 per month. This class 
of persons are employed in Monrovia to keep her streets 
clean. The market house is built of brick. On Saturday 
of each week, I understood, there can be found at the market 
stalls, fresh meat of some kind, as beef, kid, mutton, and 
fresh pork, and sometimes venison. The place presents the 
extremes of plenty and want in a very marked manner. Per- 
haps a fair representation may be inferred of the state of 
those who do not feel the pinch of want, by referring 
to the valuation of property in the city. This valua- 
tion embraced only the dwellings and furniture, not notes, 
goods, nor lands outside of the city. By permission, I took 
from the collector's books these items: There are two hun- 
dred and seventy-nine tax payers. The property assessed is 
valued at $200,000. Five persons ranged from $8,000 to 
$10,000; forty-four rated from $1,000 to $8,000; fifty rated 
from $500 to $1,000; thirty-four rated from $2,000 to 
$500, while the balance rated from $200 down to $50. 
This would show that some of the inhabitants had been 
diligent in business, when their beginnings are remem- 
bered. I was convinced, and so remarked to the collector, 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



41 



that it was not an equal valuation. The stores and many 
of the dwelling houses had not been assessed at any thing 
like their cost and present value. I should judge that some 
of the citizens lived at the rate of $2,000 a year, others 
$1,500, others $1,000, and so on, down to a sum that might 
cover a good comfortable living in Africa. What I mean by 
this expression, is good food, plain dress, and a comfortable 
house to live in. Provisions are high. Beef, mutton, and 
kid, sell at twelve and a half cents per pound; fresh pork, 
twenty cents per pound; eggs thirty-seven and a half cents per 
dozen; butter fifty to sixty cents per pound; chickens twenty 
cents a piece; a turkey, two dollars. There are poor per- 
sons here from causes that operate in all places in every civ- 
ilized land. But there are poor persons in Monrovia from 
her own policy of action, in my judgment. She has more 
inhabitants than her land and business can give employment 
to. There is, and has been, a great effort to have the emi- 
grants to Liberia, acclimate in Monrovia. They have some 
money in their hands. During the acclimation that money 
is spent for things that are sold at a very high advance. At 
the end of the six months, the survivors, (some of them wid- 
ows with children) are without land to live on, and without 
means to get away from the place. Being accustomed to 
have provision made for their wants, they suffer the more 
from having those wants come upon themselves, to provide 
for, when they have no means at hand to meet them. They 
cannot get away to where land can be drawn by them to live 
on, for that removal must be made by hiring a boat to get to 
the land. Others not having exhausted their means, have 
formed acquaintances during the six months, and continue 
their stay, having no land, nor the possibility of drawing 
land at Monrovia, until their means are gone, and they be- 
come poor, very poor. Over six thousand have acclimated 
at this place. A great many of that number are sleeping 
the sleep ©f death in the grave yard; but many, too many, 
suffered from their poverty before they fell into that sleep, 
while others are now standing monuments — that it is a rare 
thing for them to taste meat, but at the hand of charity. I 
repeat it, that towns, large and small; in all civilized lands, 
have the poor in them; but Monrovia has a class of poor, who, 
if they had acclimated back in the country where there ia 
farm land for them, would, I believe, in many instances, be 
now on their lands cultivating them; or if the fathers had 
fallen after acclimating, the widows and children would be 
deriving a support from the land. I think, in all candor, that 
Monrovia's policy to build up in numbers has put back Libe- 
ria both in numerical strength, and producers for her sup- 



42 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



port. Of course this has not been designedly the aim of 
Monrovia. It is the result of her policy. And that her pol- 
icy still aims at the acclimation of emigrants here, is seen 
in having, by the influence of some of her leading citizens, 
the new Receptacle put up in the town. 

From the Register's books I learned there are four hun- 
dred and twelve town lots, each of a quarter of an acre. 
Some of them, by reason of rock, and the declivity of posi- 
tion of others, remain as nature made the land. Many oth- 
ers had been drawn, and perhaps some of them used in their 
day, (for the town in part at least, was laid out in 1824,) but 
now lie turned out as "commons." Other lots have changed 
hands in some cases, twice, thrice, and four times, because 
the persons who had drawn them failed to put on them the 
legal improvements to get a deed for the lot in fee simple. 
To get a deed for a town lot or farm land, a person is re- 
quired^by law to put up a house of stone, or brick, or frame, 
or logs, weatherboarded, and roofed with tile, or slate, or 
shingles, within two years from the date of the certificate 
which states the lot has been drawn, and the time it was 
drawn. The farm land must have two acres cleared to get a 
deed for it. South of the town plot there is a body of land 
that stretches off to the sea, lying east of the false Cape, but 
is embraced within the incorporated limits of the city. I re- 
fer again to the Register's books. This body of land contains 
four hundred and fifty-seven acres, and is divided as follows, 
viz: Thirty-nine five acre lots; three six acre lots; six eight 
acre lots; six nine acre lots; thirteen ten acre lots, and one 
twelve acre lot. Sixteen of these farm lots, making in all, 
forty-eight acres, are under cultivation, more or less. One 
of these farm lots is called the Benedict farm. But since the 
death of Judge Benedict, it does not meet the description 
that has been often given of it in the African Repository, by 
writers in Liberia. Many of the original owners of these 
farm lots have died, leaving no heirs; others still own their 
lots, but do not farm them; while a few natives of the Congo 
tribe cultivate for themselves, as squatters, a few acres near 
to the sea shore. The President of the Republic, as Presi- 
dent, has given twenty acres of this farm land to the Trus- 
tees of the Liberia College, now being erected thereon. 
Such a body of land to lie in commons does not bespeak 
much for the industry of the owners in general, nor for that 
class who have no land of their own, nor house where to 
lay their head, as their house. 

In whatever street I went, I saw cattle, sheep, goats, and 
swine running at large. Beside the streets, and open lots, 
they had the body of land alluded to above, as their "com- 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



43 



mons for food. There is no horse, nor mule here, nor is there 
a yoke of cattle. Cattle brought here from the interior, say 
forty to fifty miles, have to acclimate to live here. But it is 
not very fatal. The young of all the stock have their health 
so far as climate is concerned. It is, I believe, a fact in re- 
gard to cattle taken from the mountain counties to the tide 
water counties in Virginia, they have to acclimate to live 
there. The number I saw in Monrovia that have acclima- 
ted, and the number that have been calved here, and have 
grown up, is sufficient proof that oxen can live here. It is 
true, the reason given why there are no oxen used here, is, 
that they will not live if they are worked. That cattle can 
be worked in Liberia, I found true in Maryland county. 
There I found them drawing lumber three miles. Up the 
St. Paul's river oxen are used by some farmers; and when 
Richardson was alive, he worked oxen to plow his land. But 
in Monrovia, it seems oxen cannot be worked, because work 
kills them. The natives do the work of beasts of burden. 
There is one street leading from the river's bank to Ashmun 
street that could, in my judgment, be graded for less than 
$200, so that two yoke of bullocks, if necessary, though not 
larger than the cow I measured at Cape Mount, can take up 
a good load from the wharf to any lot on the mount; and yet 
that street has not been graded. It is true, on one occasion, 
within the memory of man, it was seen that the rocks in 
that street interfered with the walking in civil parade of 
Frenchmen and Liberians from the landing up into the 
town, and caused zig zag steps to the music, and the notice 
of the legislature was called to "the condition of that street," 
to guard against the repetition of such a mortifying occur- 
rence. But what is such an ephemeral occasion in compar- 
ison to the business requiring its improvement. All the brick 
and sand, all the lumber and nails, all the merchandize and 
groceries, yea, every thing but common unhewn stone, are 
brought up from the wharfs on men's heads, or backs, or in 
their arms, "by hook or by crook." What a strange sight 
in a civilized land to see cattle going about the streets, and 
a line of human carriers doing the work of beasts of bur- 
den. Twenty-five to thirty native men in single file carry 
on their heads the materials for the erection of a college 
building! Each one takes what is required, be it brick, or 
sand, or stone window sills, and carries his load over a mile, 
and returns for another load. Lumber is taken to the spot 
to be used by several natives, as the length and weight de- 
mands. I saw, I suppose a new improvement — a new cart, 
with some natives holding up the tongue, others guiding the 
cart by the tongue, others drawing the cart by a rope fast- 



44 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



ened to the bolster, and others behind pushing the cart. The 
cart was loaded with brick brought up on the head from the 
wharf, and deposited in the street. There was no necessity 
to give the words gee nor haw; the natives understood their 
own dialect and moved according to the word of command 
by the head native. The President of the college is acting 
on a system of economy and expedition, and certainly the 
plan works well in saving brute labor, in thus gathering to- 
gether all the materials, except rough stone on the ground, 
for a brick building three stories high, 70 by 40 feet. But 
what is the erection of this college building to all the build- 
ings and the mercantile business of Monrovia, requiring this 
method of carriage of their materials. I found, also, that in 
taking a ride, a buggy had natives harnessed to it, and 
according to the wind of the animals^ the buggy wheels re- 
volved in velocity. I certainly did not admire such a lev- 
elling practice as an elevating principle to raise their heathen 
brothers. The Constitution of Liberia expresses this noble 
sentiment — "one great object of forming the Republic is to 
regenerate and enlighten this benighted continent." Had 
the place no cattle, the plea of necessity to take what kind 
of laborers that would do the work needed, could be sus- 
tained. But having cattle, I am afraid the natives are em- 
ployed because they can be paid in articles of barter, as 
cloth, tobacco, (fee, that the per centage charged on them 
left a large margin for profits, even for poor labor. 

Standing near to the Receptacle, there is a full view of 
the surrounding country. From this position the localities 
around Monrovia are to be seen without mistake. Bushrod 
Island is in plain sight. It has for five miles on the north 
side, the Atlantic ocean — for four and a half miles on the 
north-east side, the St. Paul's river — for eight miles on the 
east side, Stockton creek, and for three-fourths of a mile at 
its south end, the Mesurado river. If all the land which can 
be cultivated on the Island in the dry and wet season were 
brought into one tract, it might equal one hundred and eighty 
acres of land. The rest is in swamp land. Formerly a 
small tract of land on the Atlantic boundary was cultivated 
under the direction of the Governors of the Colony. The 
natives have two small patches of ground in cultivation on 
the St. Paul's boundary, and not far from their location, a 
Liberian has a small farm for cassada, sweet potatoes, ed- 
does, and other vegetables, with different kinds of fruit. And 
i would state, I found on it an avenue from the river to a 
small brick house fifty feet wide, with a row on each side of 
large fine mango plumb trees. On the Stockton creek, there 
is no spot that a Liberian can pitch his tent, while on the 



LIBEEIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



45 



banks of the Mesurado river, a few natives have put up a 
few thatched houses to live in, while they seek a living by 
fishing, or occasional work obtained in Monrovia. The Island 
may he called a mangrove swamp. The mangrove is a shrub 
or tree peculiar to tropical countries. They are confined in 
their growth to low water courses. "Their branches are 
long, hang down to the earth, and take root and produce 
new trunks. In this manner there is a constant growth that 
makes an impenetrable forest of them, to be removed only 
by the axe or cutlass. The seeds are remarkable for throw- 
ing out roots, which grow amidst trees. They present an 
impenetrable barrier to man and beast." Encyp. Here 
and there rises high above the mangrove the tree that tells 
of a dry spot for its roots to run. The tide rises and over- 
flows this land, and the sun sends his rays where the water 
remains standing, and on leaves of decaying matter that lie 
uncovered by the retiring tide. On the other bank of Stock- 
ton creek, for five miles up to the mouth of Ayres creek, 
there is but one continuous mangrove swamp. Ayres creek 
takes off'from the Stockton creek, having a mangrove swamp 
on both sides of it to its enterance into the Mesurado river, 
which river has for some distance up its stream mangrove 
swamps on each side of its banks. Monrovia is connected 
to the main land by solid land that is three miles wide, lying 
back of the Cape. I have not exagerated this surrounding 
prospect — for country — it cannot be called. These swamps 
emit a noisome stench, especially at low water. The mi- 
asma rising from them must effect the health of Monrovia. 
Past emigrations tell a sad tale about its healthiness, as an 
acclimating rendezvous. There is too much proof that the 
tale is true. Dr. Roberts, a physician, in the employ of the 
American Colonization Society, wrote to the Secretary of 
that society in 1849, thus: "In my opinion it (that is, the 
Virginia settlement on the St. Paul's river,) is certainly the 
better place for immigrants to be acclimated. There being 
a great quantity of iron ore incorporated in the rock which 
is abundant in the town of Monrovia, the heat must be 
greatly increased, and thus a stranger must be sensibly af- 
fected. And when attacked by the fever, under such disad- 
vantageous circumstances, the prostration is greater and 
more protracted; and, again, Monrovia is bounded on the 
north, and on the north-east, by extensive mangrove swamps, 
which emit a great deal of miasma. This is wafted in 
and through the town by the morning breeze. This poison 
impregnating the air, being inhaled by foreigners early in 
the morning on empty stomachs, cannot but deleteriously af- 



46 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



feet the system, and add to the severity of the fever." There 
is a Receptaele in the Virginia settlement, and it had been 
erected at the time referred to in the foregomg quotation. 
Dr. Roberts had been there attending on a company of emi- 
grants during the season of their acclimation. His services 
had been rendered prior to this time referred to in Monro- 
via. It is due to Dr. Roberts to say he is now a perma- 
nent resident of Monrovia. At the time he gave the opinion 
quoted, he could, by his own agreement, be removed to any 
place in Liberia to attend to emigrants that the society 
thought it best to locate him at for acclimation. At this time 
the Doctor has the opinion that Monrovia is not an un- 
healthy place for emigrants to acclimate in. I heard it stated 
by high authority in Monrovia, that the tow^n was a healthy 
place, and that the water of the Mesurado river absorbed all 
the miasma that rose up from the mangrove swamps, so that 
the wind had nothing impure to raise up as high as the 
mount to affect the health of the old or new citizens. The 
reader can form his own opinion, and the master emancipa- 
ting his slaves, can decide upon Monrovia as the place he 
will send them to, in order to prepare them to live in Libe- 
ria. Li all candor, I say it is not easy to solve in my mind 
why emigrants for years past have been stopped here to accli- 
mate. I returned to the ship wondering as the past history 
of Colonization, connected with this place, came up in my 
mind. The thermometer at 7, P. M., in the cabin, was 82o. 

December 27. The thermometer in the cabin at 7 A. M., 
was 770. I went on shore to get a row-boat to go up Stock- 
ton creek; and to visit New Georgia. I saw this morning in 
Monrovia several persons from Kentucky. Among the num- 
ber was a lad named James Hines. He had lost his father 
and mother by death. He was bound out to learn the car- 
penters trade. The probate court of a county has authority 
to bind out as an apprentice every orphan child who has no 
estate to support him or her, until the age of twenty-one 
years, if a boy, or eighte<m years, if a girl, to any discreet 
person applying for, or is willing to take the child. The 
master or mistress receiving the child covenants to teach the 
child the trade which he or she may follow; and also to in- 
struct, or cause to be instructed, said apprentice in reading, 
writing, and arithmetic, and to give the apprentice, at the 
end of the time of serving, $12, The indenture has two 
stipulations: 1. The indentures are not transferable except 
by and the consent of the probate court. 2. The probate 
court, on complaint of the master of the apprentice, can rem- 
edy the complaint; and so, also, when the apprentice com- 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 47 

plains to the court against the master or mistress. A parent 
or guardian has also the privilege to bind out his child or 
ward as the case may be. I saw, also, a woman from Har- 
rodsburg; her husband was dead, and had left property 
enough for her support. When any person dies intestate, it 
is made the duty of the probate court in the county in which 
the deceased person resided, to appoint an administrator to 
settle it; the administrator giving bond and security in double 
the estimated value of said intestate's estate. One year is 
allowed to settle the estate without cause is shown to the 
Judge to continue the time; but the Judge cannot extend the 
time but six months. 

I took a boat and started up Stockton creek. I have stated 
that the creek empties into the Mesurado river opposite to 
Monrovia. Its whole bar is ahnost bare at low water in the 
dry season. I found its deepest part not over two feet. Af- 
ter crossing the bar it is five feet deep, and ranges from that 
to seven feet as you go up its stream. I say up its stream, 
but it is an ambiguous term in its application to this creek. 
There is such a singularity in the waters of the creek, that it 
may be called a compound delta. The St. Paul's river is di- 
vided into two streams seeking their wa}' to the ocean. St. 
Paul's river proper, and Stockton creek passing off from the 
St. Paul's river, and after running four miles, taking off a 
part of its water to form Ayres creek, which creek likewise 
mingles its waters in the Mesurado river with those that 
flow on to the same river in Stockton creek proper. The ebb 
tide passes up from the Mesurado river in both of these 
creeks, Ayres and Stockton, to where the Ayres creek comes 
out of the Stockton from the St. Paul's river, and the ebb 
tide of the St. Paul's river flows into the Stockton creek. 
The water at high tide is at a stand both in the Ayres creek 
and in the Stockton creek at the mouth of the Ayres creek. 
At the mouth of Ayres creek it is high tide when it is high 
tide in the St. Paul's river, and high tide in the Mesurado 
river. When the flood tide commences at the mouth of 
Ayres creek the water falls opposite ways — one portion goes 
down the Ayres creek, another portion goes down the Stock- 
ton creek to the Mesurado river, and another portion goes 
down — or, more properly speaking, goes up — the Stockton 
creek to the St. Pauls river. On entering the Stockton creek 
from the St. Pauls river, having come down it with a. flood- 
tide, you meet with an opposite current, until you come to 
Ayres creek, and then you take a flood-tide to the Mesurado 
river. A half mile above the mouth of Ayres creek there is 
a bank some two feet above high water where I landed, and 



48 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



found a dyke had been thrown up to make a dry way in the 
wet season for a half mile to 

NEW GEORGIA. 

In 1827, the United States Government sent to Liberia 
one hundred and forty-three Africans who had been brought 
into the country contrary to the law forbidding the importa- 
tion of slaves into the United States after the year 1808. 
The Government paid the expense of their removal in part, 
to Liberia. They were located at this place. Why they 
were located at this place, when its local position is taken 
into consideration for health, and Caldwell, on the St. Paul's 
river, had been settled for two years, with two hundred and 
eighteen emigrants, I do not know, nor can I tell how long 
they lived in the United States before they were sent to Li- 
beria; but it is a singular fact, that out of the one hundred 
and forty -three persons, three of them died by the African 
fever. They belonged to the Congo and Ebo tribes. In 
1830, the United States Government sent ninety-two of the 
same class of Africans to Liberia, who were also located at 
this place. Two of this number died by the African fever. 
Beside these two emigrations, up to 1844, only nine eman- 
cipated slaves from North Carolina, and thirty-four free 
blacks from Georgia have settled here, who came direct to Li- 
beria. Some have been added to the number by removal from 
other settlements, through intermarriage chiefly, as in the 
case of those sent to Liberia by R. Bibb, Esq., dec'd. of Lo- 
gan county, Kentucky. 

New Georgia has two principal streets, on which most of 
the inhabitants reside. Some few cross-streets have dwel- 
lings on them. One hundred and fitty-nine town lots of one- 
fourth of an acre have been drawn, but not more than 
twenty-one of them are now occupied by the original set- 
tlers, because they, are too far off' from their farm lands. The 
soil is a white sand with very little loam in it. The streets 
are remarkably clean. The houses are mostly of one story, 
and are framed buildings; other houses are built of poles, 
daubed with clay. All the houses are raised from two to three 
feet from the ground, and are placed on pillars of wood or 
brick, to give a free circulation of air, especially in the wet 
season. This practice prevails in Liberia. They have no 
stone in this settlement. The improved lots are planted 
with cassada, sweet potatoes, eddoes, yams, beans, melons, 
cucumbers, &c., with a suitable proportion of the pawpaw, 
pine apple, tamarind, cocoa nut, orange, lime, guavo, plan- 
tain, and banana. The yam is a herbacious vine; the roots 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



49 



are larger than the cassada. With great attention to their 
cultivation, and in rich soil, they will be two and a half feet 
long, and weigh fifteen to twenty pounds. They are a very 
nutricious and a wholesome vegetable. They are fit for use 
in four months, and yield abundantly. The pine apple grows 
wild in the woods. But when domesticated they are richer 
and more palatable than the wild ones. The apple grows 
out of a stalk fifteen inches from the ground, surrounded 
with prickly branches, with similar leaves putting out at its 
top. They are considered injurious to emigrants while hav- 
ing the acclimating fever, but it is difficult to keep the hands 
of such person? off of them. The tamarind is a large tree 
of the size of an old black heart cherry tree. It bears a pod 
two and a half inches long, and an inch broad. Its "meat 
is like that of the honey locust, except that it is more acid." 
The cocoa nut is a beautiful tree. Its long curved leaves 
hang down from the top of the body of the tree, which has 
run up thirty feet. The fruit puts out at the root of the 
leaves from the tree, in clusters. They come to perfection in 

months. The orange is in size and branches, like an 

apple tree, and bears twice a year, having the oranges scat- 
tered in its branches. They can be found on some of the 
trees every month in the year, though the principal ripening 
of them is in May and June, and in November and Decem- 
ber. There can be seen al the same time on the trees the 
bud, the blossom, the full formed fruit, and the ripe fruit. 
They have two kinds, the sweet and the sour. The sweet 
are better than the Havana and the New Orleans oranges. 
The lime is much like the orange tree in its growth and yield, 
but differs in size, the lime being the smallest in growth. 
The guava tree abounds here. It is like to our peach tree. 
The guava is not fit to eat from the tree, but makes a very 
rich preserve. Its size is that of a common peach. The 
Georgians spoke the English language with a foreign ac- 
cent. Their children had not that accent in their speech. 
They were ready to give me information in regard to their 
means of support, their productions, their schools, and their 
religious privileges. They raised cotton, spun it, and in 
some measure, wove it into cloth. Their dress, the cultiva- 
tion of their land, their social intercourse, and their religious 
improvement, bespoke much for their comfort, their industry, 
and morals. Order seemed to prevail throughout their town. 
In their yards, and at iheir doors, I could see the female 
members of the households in their every day dress, brought 
out of their houses from curiosity to see me, a white person, 
walking up and down their streets, gazing at what I saw in 
their town. 1 was very much gratified at the cleanliness 
4 



50 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



and good manners I witnessed among them as a body — for 
there was a difference in the comforts and style of the peo- 
ple. In every place there will be, and must be, for good or- 
der, males and females, who have proper ideas of what con- 
stitutes a good, orderly, and moral society, and who will 
give a particular personal exhibition of its several parts in 
their daily life. They have two churches, Methodist and 
Baptist, two day schools, and two Sabbath schools. Many 
of the children read and spelt for me, showing that they had 
an "aptness to learn." There is a standing law in Liberia 
that sets apart $1,000 a year to be divided in the several 
counties in the Republic, according to the number of chil- 
dren, to sustain schools for their instruction. But as long as 
the church in the United States support the schools in Libe- 
ria, there will not be found $1,000 in the Tj-easury of the 
Republic to be distributed for educational purposes in the 
counties. The door yards were fenced in with rived pales, 
or with poles well wattled together. In the yards 1 saw 
chickens and moscova ducks, and sheep and goats in the 
streets. They once owned cattle, but having no use for 
them, they stopped raising them. Their main reliance in 
cultivating the earth is the hoe, and the bill hook, similar in 
form to a pruning knife, but longer, with a short handle. 
Great contentment prevailed among them. I need not say 
they were citizens of the Republic, and that the officers of 
their town were elected out of their own class of persons. 
I did not see a mulatto among them. I went into a house 
and stated I would be glad to have dinner, but with no spe- 
cial preparation for it, as I wished to see what could be fur- 
nished me on such a call, to eat. I was soon seated at a ta- 
ble, having before me cold mutton, cassada, rice and sweet 
potatoes. The mutton was not as fat as Kentucky mutton, 
but it was sweet, tender and juicy. I was pleased with my 
dinner. They gave to me to drink, the juice of the grana- 
dilla. It grows on a vine. Its fruit is as large as the cante- 
lope when picked for pickles. The rind is thick, and when 
dry, is as hard as that of the gourd. It has a mucilage^ 
which, when cooked, makes an excellent pie. When ripe, 
it is eat with its seeds which are soft, with some sugar 
gprinkled over it. The taste of it is like that of the straw- 
berry. When the juice is expressed out of the pulp and 
drank, the taste of the strawberry is not gone. It is a pleas- 
ant drink. Its color is like that of milk and water. I found 
the water soft, but to me it was not good, having a marshy 
taste. They get water by digging ten feet. The town has 
swamps on each side of it but one. It has, by a narrow 
strip of dry land, a connection with Caldwell. The land 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 51 

immediately adjoining the town is so wet that they have to 
go some distance to get farm lands. I took a canoe and 
went up a creek to see their farm lands. The creek winds 
its way among mangrove swamps on each side of its banks^ 
being about twenty yards wide. Its current was not strong. 
When the creek took a turn I discovered a rise of land on 
the point in the bank; this indicates that the ground back 
from the creek is higher land than that on the opposite side. 
On going ashore at such places, I found a tract of cleared 
land, which no doubt had been cleared by the natives who 
had lived here in days gone by. In some of these clearings 
there would be sixty acres, in others, one hundred acres, and 
in others, one hundred and fifty acres. In every instance I 
saw a strip of woods in the rear of the clearing running 
something in the form of a half circle around a third or two 
thirds of the cleared land. On going to this strip of woods, 
I would find a stream of water coming from a wet spot on 
the tract of land, taking its winding way in the midst of the 
woods, and running off until it met with a similar stream 
coming from an adjoining tract of land, and when united, 
went off to some creek that had been made up by such rivu- 
lets back in the country. This I found to be the prevailing 
feature in the formation of land in Liberia. As you go back 
from the rivers, the tracts of land will vary in size, having 
the stream of water in its rear; and the width of the stream 
would also vary in breadth and rapidity of flow. In many 
cases where the land was of a champain character, there 
would be wet land on each side of the stream. In some 
cases the wet land would be wider than others; but which 
land, when cleared, would be dry in the dry season, and not 
too wet in the wet season for cultivation. Such portions of 
land were invariably rich, and most generally of a deep 
black loam. The running water would be sweet and good, 
according to the location of the land, and would be still bet- 
ter if vegetable matter falling into it was kept out. This 
feature of the country secures water for man and beast, for 
if in the dry season it is abundant for such purposes, it 
certainly will give a supply of water in the wet season. 
There will be no occasion in Liberia for that particular prayer 
that was offered in the land of Canaan by the Isrealites^ 
*'turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the 
South." In the south of Canaan the streams dry up in the 
summer, and in the winter the streams are supplied with 
an abundance of water. But here in Liberia, "God has 
opened rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of 
the valleys. He has made the wilderness a pool of water, 
and the dry land, springs of water." Many of these swampy 



S2 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



Strips of land may now be unhealthy, but if cleared, so that 
the sun shines upon the land, that doubt would be removed, 
while the farmer would be rewarded in the wet season with 
heavy crops of rice and other productions needing dampness 
of soil. The farm lands of the Georgians altogether, were 
five hundred and fifty-five acres, divided into lots of five to 
ten acres. About one hundred and thirty acres were in cul- 
tivation. There was not a sign of a fence on the lands, nor 
of the use of the plow. The owners had not "all things in 
common," but made artificial boundaries by a row of sweet 
potatoes, or black eyed peas, to designate their "posses- 
sions." The land was good, with clay soil much mixed with 
sand. And if turned up by the plow would show better 
cassada, American corn, sugar cane, eddoes, yams, &c., than 
I saw growing on it. And it is certain they and their pos- 
terity will not have cattle if their lands lie uninclosed by 
fences. I returned to the town with this conviction — this is 
is not a healthy place for new emigrants from the United 
States. It is strange that the natives of this coast can settle 
down on land surrounded by mangrove swamps, and have 
itheir health. I passed by their burying ground; for wherever 
man lives on earth, he must build "the city of the dead." I 
saw at the head and foot of the graves a simple but lasting 
expression of the remembrance of the living for their dead. 
It was a shrub that is called the soap tree, from the fact, that 
the leaves, when stirred up in water, makes a suds that is 
used for washing clothes. The bible teaches us "that cor- 
ruption shall put on incorruption.^^ I saw in one of the 
streets cannon planted in positions that would testify, if ne- 
cessary, that the Georgians were prepared to receive their 
enemies. They can muster seventy -five men. The law of 
Liberia requires every able bodied male citizen of the Repub- 
lic, between the ages of sixteen and fifty, to be enrolled in 
the militia. This people have not received additions to their 
numbers by new arrivals of emigrants since 1835. Some of 
their youth have moved to other settlements in Liberia; still 
they more than hold their own in population. I found more 
children born here in proportion to the population of the 
place, than I found in any settlement that I visited in Libe- 
ria. In 1844 the population was two hundred and sixty- 
four; in 1854 it was two hundred and ninety-four. Those 
natives who had died, who came from the United States, 
*had chiefly died of diseased brain, or diseased lungs. There 
ds no sugar nor coffee raised here for exportation. What 
they raise to sell they take in canoes to Monrovia, down the 
Stockton creek. As I was leaving the town, some of the 
fathers in age, would have me call at the Methodist church, 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



53 



and see a swarm of bees in it. Of course, I must gratify 
them, and also gratify myself by seeing that peculiar body 
in a house of worship, and hear their music. I found a 
swarm of bees had entered the church, and taken possession 
of the Sabbath school library book case, in consequence of 
the door not fitting tight, and they were very busy, as all 
such bees are, and were working learnedly too, in making 
honey. As I looked at some boys who had followed us, their 
eyes, and the bend of their heads, said, as they have depriv- 
ed us of the books for some weeks past, we will, at the proper 
time, dispossess them of the benefit of their labor. 

I bade this people farewell, with the full conviction that 
the gospel of Christ, with its attendant means, as education^ 
civilization, and a proper sense of duty that man owes to his 
fellow man, in a social and civil state of life, can, and will, 
elevate the heathen in religion, in knowledge and manners 
of life. Here has been this evidence before my eyes. And 
their children coming on the stage of life, with these advan- 
tages, (which their fathers possessed not in their youth,) will 
act with higher views from their citizenship, and with more 
enlarged ideas arising from the spiritual, social, and political 
benefits furnished them by living in Liberia, than they could 
possibly have had, if they had been born, and lived, and 
died in the United States. The boat being ready for me, 
we took our way down the Stockton creek. As we moved 
on, I saw an alligator apparently five feet long stretched on 
the bank of the creek, left bare by the fall of the tide. It is 
said the alligator is very timid of man. This one gave evi- 
dence it was so with him, for as we approached him, he 
darted into the water, and was lost to our sight. I noticed 
on the creek a large fly called the mangrove fly. Its bite 
is very painful; and on going near to the mangroves to avoid 
the force of the tide from the causes we have before stated, 
the fly makes an attack upon the passers by for blood. The 
Kroomen having no clothing on, are the greatest sufl^erers. 
No dancing master ever used his legs as quick as these men 
would when one of these flies lit on their legs. The leg 
would be raised with the knowledge where it would strike 
the fly on the other leg, while the oar would be plied as if 
nothing had been done but to row the boat to the quick reg- 
ular time of his associate's oars. The fly never annoyed 
again when struck. At 7 P. M., I was on board of the ship, 
and found the thermometer was 80°. 

December 27. The thermometer at 7, A. M., stood at 82o. 
This day being the Sabbath, I went on shore to attend pub- 
lic worship in Monrovia. I visited the graveyard where 
sleep a great many dead. It is not inclosed. The place is 



54 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



overgrown with grass and bushes, except where the rich, 
and the missionaries, and their families are buried. Here 
and there a spot is cleared for a new grave to be used. Where 
the rich lie buried, the land is kept clean, and many tomb- 
stones, brought from the United States, tell the visitor who 
is buried where they stand. I attended w^orship at the Pres- 
byterian church, and preached to a very attentive congrega- 
tion. Nothing attracted my special attention but the ready 
use of the bible and psalm book by the people. After ser- 
vice, I dined with Mr. James, who emigrated from the State 
of New York. He is an Elder in the Presbyterian church, 
a teacher of day a school, and the Judge of the Probate 
Court of this county. We had lor dinner bacon, fresh beef, 
palm butter, rice, eddoes, and sweet potatoes, and for our 
desert, guava sweet meats, and pawpaw pie. The palm butter 
is made by washing the palm nuts, boiling them, washing 
them, and separating all the stringy parts from the mass. The 
cleansed parts are then boiled. While boiling, the season- 
ing is put in, as red pepper, salt, and what spice you prefer, 
with chickens, or fresh meat, or fresh fish cut up. All is 
boiled until the meat is done. Is not this a "dainty dish to 
eet before a King?" At 3 P. M., I met the four Sabbath 
schools in the town at the Methodist church, with their re- 
spective teachers. There were probably two hundred chil- 
dren present. Great attention was given to the address. I 
had a motive to set before the teachers and scholars, that I 
never had when addressing Sabbath schools at home. It 
was the character they themselves should have in Liberia and 
their connection to the natives in the land for their moral 
and civil improvement. The children appeared well in their 
dress, to the credit of their parents, and sat with great still- 
ness in the pews, to the credit of their teachers. I returned 
to the ship at 5 P. M. At 2 P. M. the thermometer in the 
shade stood at 84o. At 7 P. M., in the cabin, at 82°. 

December 28. The thermometer in the cabin at 7 A. M. 
was 750. It rained very hard about 4, A. M. On shore, at 
half past 7, A. M., the thermometer stood at 75°. I went up 
by Stockton creek to the 

CALDWELL SETTLEMENT, 

on the south bank of the St. Paul's river. The tempera- 
ture of the water of the creek at 10, A. M., was 78°. The 
Stockton creek, where it takes off from the St. Paul's river, 
has a sand bar putting off from its western bank to within 
twenty- five feet of its eastern bank on the Caldwell side, 
which gives a channel of four feet of water at low tide, and 
«even feet at high tide. The boundary line between Cald- 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



55 



well and New Georgia, is three miles down the Stockton 
creek. The St. Paul's river where we entered it is about 
seven hundred yards wide. Thirt}^ yards from the Caldwell 
shore I found the river was two fathoms deep. At half past 
10, A. M., on the St. Paul's river, in the boat, the thermome- 
ter was 80°. When we entered on the waters of the St. 
Paul, we did not find ourselves in a "wilderness where the 
waters break out." It was an open country, with dwellings 
dotted at proper intervals on the banks of the river, whose 
waters at low tide were fresh and fit for drink and domestic 
use. The banks of the St. Paul's river, on the Caldwell 
side, were from ten to twenty-five feet above high tide wa- 
ter. Our landing place was at a foot bridge, built out ten 
feet into the river, for the special benefit of Mr. F. T. Clark, 
a Liberian, and his guests; while his fellow townsmen could 
use it in going to and from the river on business or pleas- 
ure. A sign hung out at the bridge that said Mr. Clark 
sold crackers, cakes, beer, and cigars, to all who favored 
him with a call in his line of business. It was a capital idea 
in hanging up such a sign on this high way of nature, that 
passers by who might be hungry, could know there was a 
good "Boniface" at hand to furnish them with food. I bought 
a good string of mullet fish from "mine host," when I re- 
turned to the ship for my supper. Mr. Clark lived in a one 
story brick house. He had two lots inclosed with a living 
plumb stake hedge, which in time will have to be thined out, 
leaving a most beautiful range of trees for a neat lattice to 
be put up between them. His yard was level, and the sand, 
its natural soil^ was as white as nature ever makes it. The 
yard was cleanliness itself. Interspersed, were "the herb 
yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding seed after his kind, 
and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his 
kind." I was thus ushered into Caldwell. It was originally 
laid out six miles long on the banks of the St. Paul's river. 
There being a creek midway, that empties into the river, 
the town has taken the name of upper and lower Caldwell. 
This town was commenced in 1825. There have been drawn 
by its settlers, three hundred and three town lots, and sev- 
enty-six farm lots, from five to ten acres each. Lots that 
were once improved, and farm lands that were once cultiva- 
ted, are now "in the commons." Much, very much, is aban- 
doned, that once was a "delight." Here Tion Harris lived, 
who told in Kentucky of his farm, his horses, and cattle, 
and sheep, and corn, and sugar cane — and he told the truth. 
But alas, his lands, as well as others, are as "an oak whose 
leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water." And he 
himself is with the dead, having been killed by lightning. 



56 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



Comparatively, in lower Caldwell, (where most of the first 
settlements were made,) but few lots are improved, and a 
great body of the farm land is lying out unimproved. The 
soil for a mile back from the river is sandy, and from past 
cultivation, is very poor. The wild grass has taken posses- , 
sion of it. There has been much disputing in years past in 
this township in regard to land titles. Neighborhood alter- 
cations sprung up — many lost a portion of their lands — oth- 
ers lost all their improvements, and many moved away, 
while others, who remained, became indifferent in the im- 
provements of their lands, expecting to lose the title to them. 
The Legislature of Liberia attempted, by the appointment 
of Commissioners, to give the people relief, but it was at- 
tended with too much delaj' and trouble, and what was done 
by them did not give entire satisfaction. These causes no 
doubt have occasioned much of the change that is now evi- 
dent to one who had read of its improvements. For fifteen 
years but few emigrants have taken up their abode here. 
There are many of the lots inclosed, having on them good 
brick or framed dwellings, while other lots would have poor 
buildings on them, and be uninclosed. The people showed 
a great diff'erence in their industry, their improvements, and 
the articles they cultivated. This was more apparent in 
lower Caldwell than in upper Caldwell. To form some es- 
timate of an improved lot, I found a man asking $1200 for 
his town lot and dwelling house on it. He wished to sell to 
move to Maryland county. A much larger sum would be re- 
quired to buy other improved property in upper Caldwell. 
Some of the houses cost a larger sum than $1200, independ- 
ent of the improvements on the lot. Some of the people 
raised chiefly, cassada, sweet potatoes, eddoes, and garden 
vegetables, as beans, peas, melons, &c., while others would 
raise these articles, and cultivate cane, corn, cotton, arrow 
root, cofiee and yams. But I regret to say, none of the ar- 
ticles raised were exported farther than to Monrovia. In 
lower Caldwell I saw a horse at a distance, grazing in the 
fields. I went up to him and found he had a rope around 
his neck with an end hanging down two feet long. Without 
the fear of the owner before my eyes, and with jovial thoughts 
in my mind, I sprang upon his back and away we went up 
hill and down. He rode very rough, but very feelingly to a 
certain part of me. He knew his keeper's gate, and took 
me directly there, delivering me up as an adventurer. The 
horse belonged to President Benson, and had been sent here 
to acclimate. I understood he was bought for $35, and was 
raised fifty miles back in the interior. He is eight years old, 
four feet two inches high, and five feet two inches long from 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



57 



the ears to the root of the tail. He was a dark sorrel, broke 
to the saddle, but not to the harness. He had been a month 
in Caldwell, and was doing well. They spoke of him as 
having two more inches to grow in height, as if they were 
accustomed to the growth of horses in Liberia. The man 
who had charge of the horse, had on his lot a great variety 
of fruit, as tamarind, mulberry, guava, mango plumb, peach, 
citron, lime, &c. The peach is the shape of a large quince. 
It has fourteen stones in it. The tree grows some twelve 
feet high. The taste of the peach is very much like a per- 
simmon before the frost touches it. I measured one which 
was sixteen inches in circumference. / They make, it is said, 
an excellent preserve. The skin is Brown and rough. I saw 
in the porch of his house a box with some spring wheat 
growing in it. The wheat was fifteen inches high and look- 
ed well. He was nursing it to get seed to sow, and learn 
whether he could raise wheat on his land. I hope he will 
be successful. The thermometer at noon in the shade, was 
84°. The water in the spring and well was soft, but not as 
good as that I drank at Cape Mount. Its temperature both 
in well and spring, was 76°. There is better land a mile 
and a half back from the river. It is in the vicinity of what 
is called the Redwood swamp. I found on this range of 
land two Kentuckians — one a man, from the estate of Miss 
Overton, Fayette county, and the other a woman, from the 
estate of Mr. Thomas, Shelby county. I dined at the wo- 
man's house. She had married since her arrival in Liberia. 
I had for dinner chickens, fresh fish, sweet potatoes, and ed- 
does, with coffee, and syrup of cane grown on her husband's 
land. There were three men sent from the estate of Mr, 
Thomas — all were dead. Two of them were intemperate, 
and advanced in years. Intemperate persons are handled 
very roughly by the African fever. The man from Fayette 
county, is one whom I told, before he started from Ken- 
tucky, he ought not to go to Liberia, because he was too un- 
stable and simple. But here was Isaac on his farm of ten 
acres. He owned thirty acres in another place. His land 
was rich, and it showed that he had done much w^ork on it. 
He had built him a house, married a wife, and had a child. 
He showed to me his poultry, his garden vegetables, his cof- 
fee trees, his corn, his cassada, his sweet potatoes, and the 
swamp land he was clearing to sow rice and American corn 
in. How different was the condition of this man to what I 
thought it would be in Liberia. He had but $5 left of his 
money when he landed in Liberia. ''Truly the race is not 
to the swift, nor the battle to the strong." Isaac had planted 
some corn that is called Lagos corn. It comes to perfection 



58 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



in eight weeks. It is very small; the kernels about the size 
of pop corn. Lagos lies on the southern coast of i^frica, 
four hundred miles from Cape Palmas. Rice grows on such 
swamp land very abundantly. Twelve bushels, it is said, 
have been taken from an acre. The cotton that is raised is 
used chiefly for stockings and house purposes. Back of this 
Redwood swamp there is another tract of land with a stream 
running as a boundary between it and another tract; then 
comes swamps, some of them having connection by their 
waters with those that extend to Monrovia. I found the hoe 
and the bill hook the great implements of husbandry. There 
was no horse here but the sorrel; no cattle in lower Cald- 
well, but some in upper Caldwell. There were some sheep, 
and goats, and swine. Not an acre is plowed in the town- 
ship. Of the six hundred and thirty-four acres of farm lots 
that have been drawn, perhaps not one hundred and thirty 
acres were in cultivation. When 1 use the term cultivation, 
do not include the land that has coffee trees set out on it. 
I found the people, except a lonely single woman from South 
Carolina, contented with their homes. No one but the wo- 
man referred to, expressed a wish to return to the United 
States to live. I saw abundant evidence that a family would 
not starve on a quarter of an acre of land well cultivated — 
but a larger piece of land would furnish more food, and the 
dainties of the tropics, in greater abundance. But it is too 
plain, the people as a body, aim only to obtain food and 
clothing for the present time. That being secured, their 
time is given to that which satisfieth not, and makes no ad- 
vance to what might be their position as rich farmers. They 
are certainly in advance of what they were when they land- 
ed here. They are not dissipated, nor immoral, nor licen- 
tious, but too well contented with their present way of la- 
bor. Having the necessaries of life, the novelty of the new 
associations that arise from living on their own land as citi- 
zens of their own Republic, seems to have satisfied them, 
and more than rewarded the expectations that their inexpe- 
rience of liberty, and the location of themselves in their own 
country, had led them to anticipate. They need to be roused 
up to improve their advantages to do greater things, and be 
more energetic to come up to the stature of free men. They 
plead as an excuse for their present position, their great des- 
titution of money when they commenced their life here. This 
is true, and must have its weight in considering what a people 
ot energy, in a land yielding products that command the com- 
merce of the world, could in the same number of years that 
they have been here, be in at this time. And we would 
make all due allowances for their inexperience, to be rap- 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



59 



idly "a people and a nation," still we would say, that 
fencing, oxen and the plough, are the crying wants of the 
soil of Liberia. There are in upper and lower Caldwell, 
each, Methodist and Baptist churches, and day schools, and 
Sabbath schools. There are cannon placed at suitable 
points for the protection of the town. It is a good thing to 
be prepared for an attack by our enemies, but I saw no prob- 
ability that an attack would be nnade by the natives 
who lived more or less in numbers a few miles from Cald- 
well. The township can bring into field ninety men. The 
census of 1844 gives the names of one thousand three hun- 
dred and twenty-three persons who had settled in Caldwell. 
Six hundred and thirty of this number were free blacks. I 
find, on examination of that census, that of this number, (one 
thousand three hundred and twenty-three,) two hundred and 
sixty-six had died by the fever; four hundred and twenty- 
two had died by different diseases; seventy-one moved out of 
the colony; two hundred and fifty-three moved to other set- 
tlements, because of land difficulties, leaving a population 
in 1844, of three hundred and eleven souls. In 1854 the 
population of Caldwell was three hundred and six Ameri- 
cans. I returned to the ship, and was on board at half past 
8, P. M. I learned that the thermometer at 7, P. M., was 
82° in the cabin. 

There had been sent from the ship to-day, nine adult em- 
igrants to Monrovia to acclimate there; and thirty-one emi- 
grants, over twelve years of age, and fifteen under twelve 
years old, to Careysburg, to acclimate there. Careysburg 
is about twenty-five miles from Monrovia back in the coun- 
try. The present way to go there from Monrovia is by 
Stockton creek to the St. Paul's river, thence up the river 
five miles, to White Plains on the south bank of the river, 
and thence by land twelve to fifteen miles in a north-east di- 
rection to Careysburg. The emigrants went in row-boats to 
White Plains, and walked from there to Careysburg. There 
is, five miles from White Plains on toward Careysburg, a 
Methodist Missionary station for the natives living there. 
The property of the emigrants is taken by the natives hired 
for that purpose, from White Plains to Careysburg. Some 
things are carried on their heads, and other things are swung 
on a pole, the ends of which rest on their heads or should- 
ers, as the preference may be. The provisions for the six 
months are taken in the same way. The barrels of pork, 
beef, and fish are emptied into vessels that can be carried 
after this native fashion. Would that this people would be- 
lieve that there is much "increase by the strength of the ox." 



60 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



It was judged best by the American Colonization Society 
to try an experiment to test the acclimation of emigrants 
back in the interior on high ground. The society paid the 
Liberian Government the expenses of one hundred Liberian 
volunteers, under suitable officers, to act as a garrison for 
protection of the new settlement for a given time. The Rev. 
John Seys, Agent of the Maryland State Colonization Soci- 
ety was sent as Agent of the American Colonization Society 
to select the place, and superintend the erection of a suita- 
ble Receptacle and houses for the different persons necessary 
to be employed in and about such an establishment. In 
1856 Mr. Seys went out to Liberia and selected a spot, which 
is called Careysburg, after a Liberian named Carey, who 
emigrated from Virginia in 1821, and who distinguished him- 
self in fidelity and usefulness to Liberia in one of her early 
days of need. A town has been laid out on a very high hill. 
Each settler has an half acre lot, and thirty acres of farm 
land. The Receptacle is built of logs, and is made every 
way suitable for the object of its erection. The country is 
high rolling land. The water is said to be good. A doctor 
is located there, also an agent, steward, and nurses. In the 
spring of 1857, twenty-two emigrants were sent there, im- 
mediately on their arrival in the Roadstead off of Monrovia. 
Shortly after these persons had gone to Careysburg, eight 
persons who had left Monrovia, and had stopped at Clay 
Ashland to finish their acclimation, went also to Caseysburg 
to finish their six months acclimation. Of those who went 
in the first company to Careysburg, direct from the ship, 
there was but one death during the six months. After the 
six months expired there were two deaths of those who had 
stopped at Monrovia and Clay Ashland. Of the number 
who went this day from the ship to Careysburg, were six 
adults from Christian county, Kentucity, and one from Shelby 
county — the balance were from Maryland. (I would here 
state that two out of the six from Christian county returned 
to Monrovia, and took passage in the ship for the United 
States. They paid their own passage to and back from Li- 
beria. Their reason for leaving was, they came to Liberia 
to be free, and then to return back to the United States to 
live. They spent three nights in Monrovia on their return 
from Careysburg, waiting for the ship. When at sea, one of 
them was attacked with the African fever. He was attend- 
ed lo immediately, and had but a slight attack. For the 
nine emigrants left at Monrovia, and the forty-three of all 
ages, sent to Careysburg to acclimate, the following provis- 
ions were landed and placed in the hands of the Agent of 
the American Colonization Society in Monrovia, to be fur- 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



61 



nished them as needed for six months, viz: one sack of salt, 
fourteen barrels of mackerel, three boxes of soap, two bar- 
rels of rice, one bag of rice, twenty-one barrels of beef, sev- 
enteen barrels of pork, two tierces of bacon, four kegs of 
butter, fifty barrels of flour, five barrels of sugar, two bar- 
rels of syrup, one half chest of tea, three bags of coffee; one 
barrel of vinegar, two boxes of mustard, one box of pepper, 
and twelve barrels of kiln dried meal, two cases of United 
States muskets, and three boxes, and three bales of dry goods, 
were sent to be sold to meet incidental expenses. The ther- 
mometer at 7, P. M. in the cabin, was 

December 29. The thermometer at 7, A. M. in the cabin, 
was 80°. I took a boat and went up the Stockton creek to 
the St. Paul's river, crossed it, and landed at the 

VIRGINIA SETTLEMENT. 

It lies on the north side of the St. Paul's river. It was 
commenced in 1846. The township was laid out three miles 
on the banks of the river, and extends back nominally eight 
miles. The law of Liberia in regard to townships is, "each 
county shall be divided into townships of not more than 
eight miles square, until otherwise more accurately defined 
by law. Provided, that when there is not the space of eight 
miles between any two settlements — then half the distance 
whatever it ma}' be, shall limit each township." Three av- 
enues have been laid out. The first is on the bank of the 
river. The first tier of lots run back a half mile, divided 
oflT into ten acre lots to be subdivided into three and five 
acres, to suit those entitled to such quantities of land as well 
as those entitled to draw ten acres. The land on the second 
and third avenues are narrower and deeper to suit single and 
married emigrants. There have been drawn up to this time, 
sixty-six lots of ten acres each; three lots of nine acres each; 
eleven lots of seven acres each; twenty-four lots of five 
acres each; one lot of three acres; making in all, eight hun- 
dred and eighty-se\en acres. Six-eighths of the settlers are 
from the slave states. The soil is a clay, mixed with sand. 
Some of the land is inclined to sand. On the banks of the 
river it is more level than it is back from the river, and good 
clay can be found on the banks for brick. Many ot the 
farms have more acres improved than other larms have. 
And some raise more on the same number of acres than 
others do. So of the dwellings, some are well framed, and 
others are built of poles or bamboo, covered with thatch. 
Their houses were generally well furnished with the neces- 
sary articles to keep house. The furniture was plain, but 
good. The cupboard showed plates, cups and saucers, dishes, 



62 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



knives and forks, spoons, &;c. to set a decent table. And the 
houses throughout were kept cleaner and neater than such 
occupants keep their houses in the United States. I came 
to the conclusion from my examination of their houses that 
they either had some means when they arrived in Liberia to 
get many things that added much to the comfort of house- 
keeping, or they had by their labor raised more than was ne- 
cessary for their support, and by the sale of the productions, 
bought them. The industrious could find plenty of work to 
do on their lands. I was sorry to see that some continued to 
work land that was much exhausted by tillage, year after 
year, without manure, when by new clearings they could 
have new and richer land to work. In one part of the set- 
tlement I found a host of acquaintances. I had a most 
hearty shake of the hand of many a man, woman and child. 
Here I found some of the Grahams, the Eubanks, the Craw- 
fords, the Daniels, the Bells, the Stevensons, the Weirs, the 
Herringtons, the Graves, the Garnets, the Rogers, and others 
who had come to this land under my agency from Kentucky, 
They were unquestionably glad to see me, and I needed sev- 
eral personifications to answer all their claims upon me to go 
to their houses and see their farms. It was very gratifying 
to me to have the answer from them all, that I had not de- 
ceived them in my statements to them what they would find 
in Liberia, and what they would have to do to get a good 
home here. To the many cordial invitations to dinner, I had 
to give a refusal, for it was not becoming in me to eat but 
one dinner in a day. But when I went to dine at one house, 
I had the whole troop to follow, and look on me with their 
friendly comments to each other — "he has not altered at all" — 
"he looks just as he did when I bid him good-bye in Balti- 
more" — "I should know him if I should have met him any 
where" — "he said he would come to Liberia if he lived." 
Kind reader these are simple expressions, but they touched 
a cord within my bosom, that the penning of them now, takes 
me to their habitations in Liberia, with feelings of friend- 
ship and interest for their future welfare. My dinner was 
chicken, fresh fish, (how plentiful they are in St. Paul's river) 
cassada, sweet potatoes, and coffee, with syrup from the 
cane. The cane grew on his land, but the coffee was bor- 
rowed of a neighbor, for mine host had not been long 
enough in Liberia to have coffee trees bearing coffee. The 
other things on the table, except the fish, he had raised on 
his own land. The cane was ground at a mill a mile off. 
He had a comfortable house for a new settler, with a shan- 
tee in the yard for a kitchen. Many of the Kentuckians had 
made a good selection of land. Some had drawn land on 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



63 



the bank of the river, and others had gone back and drawn 
lots on the third avenue. The land was heavy timbered, 
and they and their neighbors from other states showed some 
hard work had been done toward getting ready to live. I 
found some persons had drawn land, but had not cut a tree 
on it, and a few had not even drawn land. I found two Ken- 
tuckians in this lazy condition. They had had money, and 
had lived on it as some white persons do on their moneyj 
thinking and acting as if it would never be less in quantity 
and value, until it was all gone, and they lost shame, and 
cast themselves upon their friends to give them bread. I 
found the Kentuckians living here, with the exceptions I 
have stated, in a contented good condition as new settlers in 
a new country. I could draw the contrast in these acquain- 
tances. There certainly was a change in them for the bet- 
ter. The change was in their manliness, their deportment 
toward each other, the respect of the man for the woman, 
and the apparent consciousness of acting for themselves. I 
do not wish to imply that I had not seen these characteristics 
in the Liberians before in the same prominent manner; nor 
do 1 wish to make the impression they were fully developed 
here in all their refinement and effects; but I mean to say, 
that by seeing more in one settlement together in a circle, 
and in their different dwellings, whom I had known before 
they landed in Liberia, I was most sensibly struck with these 
appearances in them. As they had confidence in me, what 
a good time it was for them to cry out, O that you would 
take me back to old Kentucky! When I took out my note 
book to put down the names of those who had died of their 
respective families, and the like information, I thought it was 
a good opportunity to test their contentedness in living in 
Liberia. I therefore, without any remarks as a prelude, 
spoke out — will any of you return with me in the ship, if I 
will agree to see you back on the old farms you came from? 
I did this in good faith, and at a great risk of my pocket, for 
my proposition was to pay the expense of their return. One 
of the number said, ''I will go back with you." My ques- 
tion opened up a running talk among them. Some said one 
thing, and some said another thing — all was about this 
friend; that relative; this acquaintance, and that old neigh- 
borhood; but all settled down in the common feeling, we are 
"in our homes." It was a woman who said she would go 
back. In a more private situation, I asked her why she was 
willing to go back? She replied, my husband treats me bad, 
and leaves me for days. We have a home and land, but he 
is not kind to me." Poor soul, she opened up her mind to 
me, as if I was the friend who could relieve her from her do- 



64 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



mestic troubles. All I could do for her was to advise her to 
let the gentleness of the woman be used faithfully to win him 
back to her, for when they left Kentucky for Liberia, I had 
noticed they were very fond one of another in many little 
ways that expressed aflection. If that course could not ef- 
fect a change for the best, then I suggested to her the relief 
pointed out by the town clerk of Ephesus, "the law is open, 
and there are deputies, let them implead one another." The 
law of Liberia in regard to divorce is, "any person or per- 
sons wishing a bill or writing of divorcement for the dissolu- 
tion of a marriage contract, shall in all cases, apply to the 
Clerk of the Court of Quarter Sessions of the county where 
they reside, either b}^ themselves, or attorney, and shall file a 
complaint." The case being laid before the court, the Judge 
submits the whole testimony taken, to a jury, and if the ac- 
tion and complaint is sustained, the Judge grants a bill of 
divorcement. But in no case can a divorce be granted, ex- 
cept for the cause of infidelity or adultery, either in the hus- 
band or wife. The clerk is required to keep a minute and 
correct record of the evidence. He also is required to ren- 
der a categorical account of costs incurred in the trial of the 
case, with an additional sum of twenty-Jive dollars tax fee to be 
paid into the Treasury for county purposes. 

It was not to be wondered at that these persons should feel 
satisfied with their new homes. They had had means fur- 
nished them to build their houses, and in clearing their 
lands, with some exceptions. And those who had not as 
much money for these purposes as some others, had been in- 
duced by their necessities to act for themselves. Monrovia, 
and the shipping touching at Monrovia, furnish a market for 
many articles raised in the settlements on this river. Cer- 
tainly these people were influenced by the circumstances 
that no white persons were living among them as their su- 
periors, and that they were all of one color, one blood, and 
civilians in a land of their own by purchase and govern- 
ment. All these associations were in embryo. It is now 
resting upon them, under God's blessing, to develope their 
tendencies to raise them higher in the scale of human man- 
hood. Certain it is, I did not regret that they had chosen 
to make this land their home. But we must not forget those 
lazy men who had not drawn land, or who had drawn land, 
but had not cut down a tree on the land. Necessity may 
force them by and by to work; but laziness and indifference to 
their social and political privileges now prevail, and the tat- 
tered remains of clothing they left the United States with, 
show the consequences of their idleness. How valuable is 
the coun^l of Solomon to emigrants to Liberia: "He becom- 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



66^ 



eth poor that dealeth with a slack hand — but the hand of the 
diligent maketh rich." I had occasion to relieve a wife 
from the effects of the laziness of her husband. He had 
drawn a good piece of land in this settlement, but made no 
improvement of it. I bought his interest in it, and made 
such improvements on the land that he could get a deed for 
k. He deeded it to a citizen of Liberia when he had his 
deed for it — that citizen deeded it to the man's wife. Upon 
the land, a house was then built, for $35, with two rooms. 
This was done by the consent of the woman with her money 
in my hands to pay over to her. Both of the parties were 
from Kentucky. Thus a home was secured to the woman, 
for the constitution of Liberia declares, "that the property 
of which a woman may be possessed at the time of her mar- 
riage, and also that of which she may afterwards become 
possessed, otherwise than by her husband, shall not be held 
responsible for his debts whether contracted before or after 
marriage. Nor shall the property thus intended to be se- 
cured to the woman be alienated otherwise than by her free 
and voluntary consent; and such alienation may be made by 
her, either by sale, or devise, or otherwise." 

I noticed in this settlement what 1 had observed in New 
Georgia and Caldwell: the line of timber defining the route 
of the little stream of water. Some of the settlers had land 
running to, and in some cases, embracing the stream in its 
length through the breadth of their lands. The quality of the 
wet land on each side of the water was excellent. The fam- 
ilies whose land embraced these streams, used the water to 
drink, and for all domestic purposes. It was soft and good. 
Those living on higher land depended on wells. The land 
commenced a rolling form a half mile from the river. And 
I was told by several persons who had been back eight miles 
to trade at a native town, they found the surface of the land 
inclined to be hilly, and in knobs like. I noticed rock here. 
In some places it was a white fiint, but most generally a 
hard granite. In such neighborhoods the ground was in- 
clined to be gravelly. There is a brick Receptacle that was 
built by the Government of the United States on the banks 
of the St. Paul's river for the accommodation of recaptured 
Africans taken from American slavers by our naval vessels 
cruising on this "coast" for that purpose. The building has 
ground attached to it for the use of the persons while occu- 
pying it for six months. In the absence of occupants a set- 
tler has put some of the ground into cultivation for his own 
benefit. I had to go over very luxuriant sweet potatoe vines 
to examine the building in its internal arrangements for ten- 
ants. The building is going to decay like a good deal of 



66 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



"uncle Sam's property" nearer home. There is a swamp in 
the rear of the building which can, I think, be drained by 
letting the water into the river. The building was put up 
in 1847, and has been used by the American Colonization 
Society in several instances, for the acclimation of emigrants. 
And one time a great mortality occurred among them by rea- 
son of a great abuse of the confidence the society placed in a 
physician to attend to them while sick. The building is now 
not fit, without repairs, to put emigants in to acclimate. The 
laws of Liberia require that recaptured Africans landed in 
Liberia under the operation and authority of the laws and 
treaties of the Republic, may be apprenticed to citizens of the 
Republic under the following regulations: males under the 
the age of fourteen years shall be bound until they attain 
the age of twenty-one years — over fourteen years, lor a term 
of seven years, females under the age of eleven years shall 
be bound until they attain the age of eighteen years — those 
over. eleven years, shall be bound fur seven years. The per- 
sons to whom such persons are bound, shall give annually, 
to every male thus bound, three shirts, three pair of trousers, 
one jacket, and one hat or cap. Girls and women shall be 
suitably and decently clothed. All such apprentices shall 
be kindly and humanely treated; and proper diligence is re- 
quired of those to whom they are bound, to instill into them 
the principles and habits of civilized life. I did not see 
any cattle, but was told that a few head were owned by some 
of the settlers. There were hogs, and sheep, and goats 
enough to prove the}^ could be raised here to any demand, 
but no one had inclosed his farm lands. The hoe was the 
• chief instrument of work, and the bill hook the next reli- 
ance. It seemed to me that time was not long enough to do 
all the work that was needed by such tools, to make farmers 
on a large scale. How fortunate for their system of farm- 
ing, that "the heavens hear the earth, and earth hears the 
■ corn" — the cassada, and the various edible productions of 
this land. Many have put out coffee trees in reference to 
raising coff'ee to sell. There are Methodist and Baptist 
churches here, and day and Sabbath schools. The schools 
average thirty to forty scholars. The teachers have a sal- 
ary for teaching day schools, from $150 to $200. They are 
paid by the Missionary Society that has established the 
school. It appeared singular to me to hear boys and girls 
from .Kentucky talking to me .about going to school, and 
what they were learning at school. God grant in his kind 
providence to them that they may Jearn and use their knowl- 
edge to their own benefit, and that of others. There are 
fouf'whipsaws constantly employ-ed, and the lumber com- 



LIBEaiA, AS I FOUND IT. 



67 



mands a ready sale at the prices given at other places. 
They can muster ninety men, and have sufficient cannon, 
ball, and powder for self defence. The Liberians trade 
with the natives by buying mats, &c., and pay them in cloth, 
<fec., at a great advance on the price they bought the goods 
for. The population of this settlement in 1654 was three 
hundred aud eighty-four, but from additions made by emigra- 
tions since then, I presume it may be set down at five hun- 
dred at this time. There is not a white person living in the 
township. The thermometer at 1, P. M., in the shade, was 
86°. As night drew on, I took the boat with many a hearty 
good-by, and reached the ship at 8 P. M. The thermometer 
in the cabin, I was told, was, at 7 P. M. 8lo. 

December 30. The thermometer at 7 A. M., was 82°. I 
left the ship at 7 A. M., in a boat by Stockton creek to the 
St. Paul's river to go to 

THE KENTUCKY SETTLEMENT. 

It is on the north bank of the St. Paul's river, estimated to 
be fifteen miles from Monrovia. At 10 A. M., on the river 
near to the settlement, the thermometer was 92°. On shore 
at 11 A. M., it was 86° in the sun. The township is called 
Kentucky — and the town, Clay Ashland, blending Mr. Clay's 
name with the name of his farm in Fayette county, Ken- 
tucky. In 1847, a tract of land was laid off as the purchase 
of the Kentucky State Colonization Society, extending along 
the river from the settlement of Millsburg, twenty miles to 
the sea; thence running along the sea beach in a north-wes- 
terly direction, about thirty miles, and thence into the interior 
about fifty miles. This is a very peculiar shaped tract of 
land. But the boundary is official, having been published in 
the thirteenth Annual Report of the American Colonization 
Society. The Kentucky Colonization Society paid $5,000 
for it to the American Colonization Society. 1 found this 
tract of land to be a nominal purchase for the Kentucky So- 
ciety. There is no evidence that the purchase was made for 
the Kentucky Society. Yesterday 1 was in the Virginia set- 
tlement which was commenced a year before the above 
boundary was given of the purchase of territory by the Ken- 
tucky Societ}^ and it is included in the above boundary as 
Kentucky's purchase — and not two years since, the part re- 
ferred to as lying on the sea coast, was sold to the Ohio Col- 
onization Society as her purchase for the free blacks in ihat 
State, to settle on in Liberia. I found the inhabitants in this 
settlement were from various states. This is desirable. I' or 
no Kentuck}^ emigrant is compelled to settle here, as is seen 
by the number stated to have been found yesterday in Vir- 



\ 



68 



LIBERIA, A3 I FOUND IT. 



ginia. All emigrants from the United States settle in Libe- 
ria where they please — having means to get to the place. 
It is therefore right that whoever pleases should settle in this 
township. But the Government of Liberia has not, in my 
Judgment, pursued a proper action toward the good of this 
place. Her policy here is not, I think, a mark of wisdom. 
The laws of Liberia allow a married man to draw a town 
lot, and five acres of farm land, or to draw ten acres of farm 
land, if the size of his family is as the law requires it to be 
to have that number of acres. And when the American Col- 
onization Society consented to the independence of Liberia, 
she made this agreement with the Liberian Commissioners: 
"The Government shall allow to emigrants the quantity of 
land heretofore allowed them by existing regulations out of 
any unoccupied or unsold lands; and when the Government 
sells any of the public lands, every alternate lot, or farm, or 
section, or square mile or miles, shall be left unsold, to be 
assigned to emigrants." Furthermore, "the Government shall 
hold the land heretofore appropriated to the Kentucky So- 
ciety for the occupancy of emigrants from said state, on the 
same terms and provisions as the other public lands." The 
Government has not a body of land surveyed or laid off, or 
designated for emigrants to draw land to live on. When an 
emigrant stops for example at Monrovia to acclimate, he is 
to go five miles to Georgia, ten miles to Caldwell, or Vir- 
ginia, or fifteen miles to Kentucky, and so on, to get to other 
settlements to select land. He returns to Monrovia to inform 
the Agent of the American Colonization Society of his 
choice. The Agent informs the county surveyor of the wish 
of the emigrant to draw land. It is vice versa if the emi- 
grant lives in another place than Monrovia, he has to go to 
Monrovia to tell the Agent his wish to have his land. This 
plan is accompanied with delay in the emigrant getting his 
land, for the surveyor does not feel anxious to go out to 
survey except a number of farm lots are wanted at the same 
time. And when the land is surveyed the emigrant has not 
his choice but from necessity. The land is surveyed adjoin' 
ing land drawn by a previous settler. There are no alternate 
farm lands in this settlement. The American Colonization 
Society pays for the survey of farm lands drawn by every 
emigrant she sends to Liberia. The person who has the 
land surveyed for him, or her, gets a certificate that states he 
has drawn the land, and if he clears two acres of it, and 
bring it into cultivation, he shall have a deed for it in fee 
simple. If he dies before he makes the improvement on the 
land, his heirs have the right to fulfill the agreement. But if 
a single man dies, and had not made the clearance required 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



69 



for a deed of it, the Government claims the land, and what- 
ever improvements are made on it, and does, not refund to 
the society the cost of the survey of it. The operation of 
this land arrangement in Kentucky has been this: Some five 
years ago some fifteen ten acre farms were laid out on the 
banks of the St. Paul's river, running back a half mile. Ad- 
joining the last ten acre farm lot the town of Clay Ashland 
was laid out. An avenue of one hundred feet wide was laid 
out running some distance back in the country (on paper.) 
The Government has sold to diff'erent persons who have 
bought on speculation (for it is not in cultivation) over one 
thousand acres of land that run in the rear adjoining the 
lines of the ten acre farms and the corporate limits of Clay 
Ashland. The lots laid out on paper of ten acres on each 
side of the avenue with three or four exceptions, for four 
miles on the avenue, are taken into the tract purchased — 
that is, the breadth of the tract comes up to the avenue with- 
out reference to the ten acre plot, and then starts from the 
other side of the avenue, and passes on to make out the quan- 
tity of land bought. Thus the land on the avenue is in the 
hands of speculators. The inhabitants of Clay Ashland, en- 
titled to draw five acres of farm land, have had to go a half 
mile to draw their land. And they had to draw^ their five 
acres side by side to one another. The laws of Liberia re- 
quire a man when he wants to purchase land to go the 
county land Commissioner, and state to him what parcel of 
land he wants to buy. The Commissioner has the land sur- 
veyed at the expense of the Government, so as to be able to 
give the precise boundaries of the land in a public notice 
that he will sell it to the highest bidder on the first day of 
the term of the Court of Sessions at a given hour before the 
court house door. The sale must not be while the court is 
sitting in the court house. The minimum price of the land 
lying on the river, is $1 per acre. The land lying back from 
the river, is fifty cents per acre. It is only in one direction 
from Clay Ashland, that emigrants can draw land short of 
tw^o miles and a half And the possibility of buying adjoin- 
ing land, all the settlers, without reference to the difference 
in them in industry and management, stand on the same 
platform as to enlargement. The only remedy is to buy of 
the speculator who holds the land adjoining. But this is not 
the w^orst feature of the land arrangement. Those who have 
land warrants, lay them where they please on unsold lands. 
Much land has been taken up in tkis way. The Government 
gives bounty land warrants to those who serve during a war 
that it is engaged in wdth the natives. I do not think the 
American Colonization Society has been privy to this course 



TO 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



of action on the part of the Liberian Government. Certain 
I am, the Kentucky Society has not been consulted in regard 
to it. I expressed my disapprobation of this policy of the 
Liberian Government, as Agent of the Kentucky Coloniza- 
tion Society. It is true, the Government proposed to me, as 
Agent of the Kentucky Society, to select what quantity of 
land I vinshed for emigrants to be sent to Liberia from Ken- 
tucky, and where I pleased, and it should be kept exclusively 
for them; but this is no vindication of the correctness of her 
policy in the sale of lands in such localities of settlements in 
this early stage of colonization. And it is at war with their 
policy in scattering the people lest the natives should attack 
them. It is proper for me to state here, that I had taken out 
in the ship two Receptacles, each one containing four rooms; 
(giving a room to a family during the six months of acclima- 
tion,) by order of the Kentucky Society. The buildings 
were to be put up where I should, on examination of the dif- 
ferent settlements in Liberia, think it best. They were to 
remain on board of the ship until I had decided upon their 
removal to the shore. I was to select land for healthiness; 
and the place that showed it had facilities for the future 
growth of the settlement. 

I landed at a farm on which was erected a good brick 
house, but with not much taste displayed on the grounds 
around it. This was the farm of the Rev. A. F. Russell, an 
Episcopal Minister. He was sent to Liberia in 1833, by 
Mrs. M. O. Wickliffe, deceased, of Fayette county, Ken- 
tucky. He owned in one body, sixty acres of good land. 
Among the productions he raised, was sugar cane and cof- 
fee. His coffee trees showed that the work of the plow in their 
midst would greatly add to their productiveness, and enable 
him to keep the grass down that gave them a yellowish cast. 
He had in use the sugar mill that Gov. Ashman used to grind 
the cane he raised on one of the dry spots on Bushrod Island. 
The mill was like unto an old fashioned cider mill. It was 
worked by ten men, with the occasional power of a bullock. 
Mr. Russell had made fifty gallons of syrup in a day, weigh- 
ing twelve pounds to the gallon. Eight gallons of juice 
would make a gallon of syrup. It cannot be told how much 
yield in sugar can be made from an acre of land in Liberia, 
without breaking up the ground with the plow, and attend- 
ing it well. It is very plain from the size and yield of cane, 
and the saccharine matter of the cane juice, that the yield 
will be great. In Jamaica, it is computed, that on an aver- 
age, one-half hogshead of sugar is raised per acre; in Gren- 
ada, three-fourths of a hogshead; Antigua, one- third of a 
hogshead; St. Kitts, one hogshead; St. Vincent, one hogs- 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



71 



head and one-fourth, and St. Domingo one hogshead and a 
half. The hogshead containing one thousand four hundred 
and fifty-six pounds. [Encyc] This yield to the acre is by 
the averaged labor of one man. The cane in Liberia is 
chiefly planted in hills about five feet apart. This method 
is considered better than to plant it in drills. Three to four 
pieces of cane are put in a hill. These, the first year, will 
put forth five to six stocks. When ripe they are cut close to 
the ground. The second year there is from the roots of the 
cane a growth of eight to ten stocks. These are likewise 
cut close to the ground. In the third year the roots are in 
their prime for yielding the greatest quantity of stocks and 
juice. Twelve stocks are suffered to grow this year. After 
the fourth crop is taken off another planting is made. Ex- 
perience has decided that in the first of the rains it is best to 
plant the cane, that is in May, that the shoots may come out 
the sooner, and may be less attacked by the bug-a bug ant, 
which they do very much when the cane is planted in the 
dry season. But others prefer to plant the cane in June. 
But as there are no frosts in Liberia, there is no fear of the 
frost cutting off* the cane before maturing. One of the great 
disadvantages of raising sugar, is the great outlay necessary 
for laborers, machinery, and stock; and when once com- 
menced, there is no alternative than to carry it on at great 
hazards of profit and loss. 

Mr. Russell has a neighbor, Mr. Blackledge, from South 
Carolina, who owns land on both sides of the St. Paul's 
river. His farm on the Kentucky side is a valuable farm, 
and is very pleasantly situated on a good rise of land from 
the river's bank. There are scattered palm trees on his clear- 
ed land, together with his cofl^ee trees, that give a very pleas- 
ing view of his brick house. He raises more sugar cane, and 
has more coffee trees, than Mr. Russell. He sells sugar ev- 
ery year from his farm. It is singular to see two persons of 
good sense, and prominent men in the Republic, for both of 
them have been Senators from this county in the Legislature, 
carrying on farms without fences, or horse, or yoke of cattle 
to the plow. All their work of tillage is done with the hoe, 
and its adjunct, the bill hook. I would commend to the Rev. 
Mr. Russell the example of Elijah the prophet, who ploughed 
with twelve yoke of oxen, though I think that two yoke of 
oxen will plow his land deep enough for good tillage. The 
coffee tree would do much better on both farms with such 
tillage. Coff'ee trees grow well on this clay soil. They were 
in bloom, and yet the coff'ee from last year's bloom was ri- 
pening to pick next month. The blossom comes out for the 
next crop either above or below, as the case may be, where 



72 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



the coffee berries are ripening from last j^ear's blossoming. 
The trees are planted from May to October. Three hundred 
and twenty trees can be profitably put on an acre of ground, 
which is fifteen feet apart. The tree bears in three years, 
and continues to bear in greater quantity to its seventh year, 
when it is in its prime. If the trees were trimmed, and not 
suffered to grow so high, (some of them grow to the height 
of thirty feet,) no question they would yield better; and cer- 
tainly the coffee could be gathered cheaper in time and labor. 
There are two kinds raised in Liberia; but I think the dif- 
ference is mostly in the size of the coffee, and the color of 
the shell. It blooms every new moon in January, February, 
and March, and blossoms slightly in April, May, and June. 
The chief of the blossoms put forth in January and Febru- 
ary, and in these months the heaviest gatherings of coffee 
are made. Owing to the trees blossoming other months than 
January, February, and March, there will be coffee on the 
trees almost every month in the year. Eight to ten pounds 
can be taken from a tree five years old that is well attended 
to. Some say they have taken twelve pounds from a tree. 
The coffee is of the very best kind. Coffee can be raised in 
Liberia at eight cents per pound, at great profit. What is 
wanted in Liberia in regard to raising coffee is better tillage 
of the ground, more faithful picking of the coffee, a machine 
that will separate the shell from the coffee, and merchants 
who will buy all that is brought in for sale. At present there 
is no inducement held out to the farmer to gather what his 
trees do yield. The merchants give fourteen to eighteen 
cents a pound for what little they buy. They do not buy to 
send to our market, because of the price that Rio and West 
India coffee will command in our markets. In other countries 
they put out five hundred and thirty to six hundred trees to 
an acre, but the yield is not as great to the tree as in Liberia. 
In Java the yield to a tree is estimated at two and a half 
pounds; in Venezula, two pounds; in Jamaica, one and a 
half pounds; St. Domingo, one pound, and Rio Janeiro, two 
pounds. The Java coffee (the coffee to which that of Libe- 
ria is compared in size and quality) can be raised for five 
cents per pound. \_Encyc.'] 

In my progress on foot, I came to the farm lots near to 
College Hill, a part of Clay Ashland. Mr. Blackledge and 
Mr. Russell's farms were parts of the tracts of land sold by 
the Liberian Government, that run in the rear of the town. On 
these ten acre farms I found one of the Graham family from 
Logan county, Kentucky. He was comfortably settled. He 
raised, as his neighbors did, the usual productions of this 
country. He was a plain man, and had bettered his condi- 



IIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



73 



tion by coming to Liberia, while Liberia had found in him a 
good citizen. He and his neighbors live on their farm lands 
on the banks of the river, in brick, framed, and log houses, 
with door yards and gardens inclosed, presenting their so- 
cial and living condition, favorably to my mind. My Ken- 
tucky friend had anticipated my arrival to-day, for some 
Cushi had gone before me to tell that I had actually arrived 
in Liberia. You must know, reader, that my Kentucky ac- 
quaintances had a yoke of bullocks. One of them was a 
round neatly made jet black animal. His hair was short 
and glossy. His eye had a roguish look. His master had 
made a vehicle, in roughness, the very reverse of his bullock. 
The bullock he had broke to the harness, and instead of the 
natives pulling his carriage, he had his bull to do it. He 
took a premium on his animal, at the fair in Monrovia on the 
14-21 Dec, 1857. He rode in his carriage at the fair, but 
received no premium for it. The committee in making out 
the list of premiums, I suppose, did not anticipate the pre- 
sentation of such an article. Upon my friend Graham's 
earnest invitation, audit being due to his Kentuckeo Liberio 
enterprise, I seated myself in the carriage, took the reins in 
my hand, and gave the word of command to Sir Black, and 
away we went to the great danger of gate posts and front 
yard fencing on the one hand, and a narrow strip of land ' 
between the off wheel, and a fine fall from the bank to the 
cooling waters of the St. Paul. The fact was not in my 
horsemanship, but Sir Black did not understand my holding of 
the reins. It is due to myself to say, I was very uncertain 
about my position, and therefore was anxious to be on the 
ground, standing upright on my feet. 

The College Hill is about one hundred and fifty feet high — 
gradually rising from the banks of the river. It was a half 
of the plot of the corporated limits of Clay Ashland, not 
surveyed off in lots. Money having been raised in the Uni- 
ted States, to endow a College in Liberia, one hundred acres 
in this town was given, by petition of the inhabitants to the 
Legislature, for college purposes. When the time drew near 
to commence the erection of the buildings, the majority of 
the Trustees of the College living in Monrovia, decided by 
the casting vote of the President of the College, ex officio^ 
(Ex-President Roberts,) to locate the College in Monrovia. 
Application was made by the Trustees to the Legislature, in 
1857-8, to confirm the act of President Benson in giving twen- 
ty acres of land within the corporate limits of the township of 
Monrovia to the College, and to confirm the act of the Trus- 
tees of the College in removing the location of the College 
from Clay Ashland to Monrovia. The Legislature refused 



74 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



to ratify either of the acts. The ground of removal was: 
the rear of the one hundred acres in Clay Ashland, run into 
a swamp that has an outlet by a creek to the St. Paul's river. 
The singularity and force of the reason lies in this: a Col- 
lege should not have a swamp in the rear of its lands in Ken- 
tucky, but be surrounded on two sides with mangrove 
swamps at Monrovia. And it is still more singular to make 
a remove of a College to Monrovia, when the teachers of 
the High School, under the care of the Presbyterian Board 
of Foreign Missions, located in New York City, have deci- 
ded in their minds it is best to have the High School removed 
from Monrovia to some place up the St. Paul's river. 

Passing the Hill, I entered Clay Ashland. And here I was 
indeed welcomed. I had around me the Hendersons, the 
Wardiaws, the Freemans, the Gasses, the Hitheringtons, 
the McMurtrys, the Fields, and many more from Kentucky. 
I found on inquiry, that some Kentucky families had suffered 
more by acclamation than other families from Kentucky had 
suffered. This was not owing to having come from North- 
ern Kentucky, and the Green river portion of the State. In 
families of twenty-two emigrants, one family would lose one 
adult and two children, while another family of the same 
number would lose six adults and several children; then 
again in families of seven to eight, not one death, and in 
others, only two would survive. The difference would be 
partly owing to age, to intemperate habits established before 
emigrating, and an unwillingness to submit to the restraints 
of physicians and nurses in diet and exposure of self and 
children while acclimating. Clay Ashland has one hundred 
and thirty-one tow^i lots of one-fourth of an acre, laid off; 
one hundred and eight of them have been drawn, and are 
improved more or less. There are three brick churches, and 
a fourth (brick) is being put up. Each church — Presbyte- 
rian, Methodist, Baptist, and Episcopal — have service each 
Sabbath; and day and Sabbath schools. The Episcopal 
church had a native school, children who came from the in- 
terior, but it has been suspended for the present. I dined 
with Mr. Solomon Winkles, w^hose father, with his family, 
had been sent to Liberia by Mr. S. Cassaday of Louisxille, 
Kentucky, in 1840. I dined on chicken, fresh fish, sweet po- 
tatoes, and cassada, with a cup of coffee with syrup from 
the cane they raised on his land. How much I had to talk 
with the people about Kentucky. I started for a two mile 
walk into the country. On descending the hill on which 
most of Clay Ashland stands, 1 came to a swamp with its 
stream. The swamp was fifty yards wide, with the stream 
twenty yards wide flowing through it. There was a foot 



LIBERIA, AS I FO0ND IT. 



75 



bridge across the whole. If the land was cleared, it would 
be excellent land for corn, eddoes, cassada, cane and rice. 
It would be dry land in the dry season. It is on land that 
the Government has sold. The stream runs into that of an- 
other swamp which is three hundred feet wide, and its wa- 
ters find a connection with a stream that empties into the 
St. Paul's river. When I came on to the farm lands, having 
passed through timbered land, I could the better see the 
quality of the land, being cleared in a good degree. It was 
rolling, and of good quality, with small living streams to the 
advantage of the land as a farming country for cattle, as 
well as for man. The soil was inclined to a reddish clay, 
with a black sandy loam in the swales. I had no fences to 
get over, nor no laid out roads to take. The avenues were 
things to be. The temperature of the air at 3 P. M., was 
92°, and that of the running streams, 76°. Two miles and a 
half from Ashland, I came to a very high hill. I judged it 
to be three hundred feet high. It had been cleared off, and 
was divided off into farm lots. The growth of timber had 
been heavy. It was evident that much work had been done 
here. And according to the means had by the settlers, were 
their improvements. I found contentment with their situa- 
tion according to the time and progress they had made in 
getting their lands planted with what they required for food. 
Their houses were altogether of logs; and the shingles were 
of oak, which was easily rived, as I saw in my route. The 
water is good and soft. I saw rock that could be easily got 
for building purposes. The farther I went into the woods I 
saw the hills varied in size and height, with a good growth 
of timber. I obtained twenty specimens of the timber of 
Liberia, viz: Red Whismore, Lignum Vitse, Walnut, Red 
Teak, or Red Bay, African Pine, Ninnephy or Garlac, Bas- 
tard Mahogany, Shingle oak, Yellow Dye Wood, Gum Wood, 
Cedar, Red Wood, Highland Mangrove, Hickory, Poplar, 
Cherry, Camwood, White Whismore, Black Oak, Rose 
Wood, and Pepper Wood. Brimstone, Sassa Wood, Mulberry 
and Saffron, I did not obtain. I found in my rambles to-day, 
two yoke of bullocks. They were used to take produce and 
w^ood from the farms to the town, giving to the owners good 
profits for cartage. There were goats, sheep and swine. 
Two cows are owned in Clay Ashland. Except the swamp 
near the town, I saw none in my walks. On my return to 
Clay Ashland, I stopped at the house of a Kentuckian, and 
had a glass of sweet milk. His cow gave two quarts at a 
milking. The milk was good, and I took a bottle of it for 
my coffee on board of the ship. I bid the people good bye 
and took the boat for the ship, and so rapidly did 1 go with 



76 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



the aid of an ebb tide, and the willingness of the Kroomen 
to ply well their oars, that I was by 9 P. M. safely in her 
cabin; and strange were my thoughts when I looked up at 
the clock; my family were sound asleep at home, it being 
then with them after 2 o'clock A. M. The thermometer in 
the cabin at 7 P. M. was 82°. 

December 31. Thermometer in the cabin at 6 A. M. 81°. 
Having taken an early breakfast, I started in a boat to make 
another visit to the 

KENTUCKY SETTLEMENT. 

I took the route by the mouth of the St. Paul's river. It is 
five miles from the mouth of the Mesurado river. Our way 
from the ship lay along the sea beach in a north-western di- 
rection, having Bushrod Island on our right hand. We kept 
off in the Atlantic far enough to be beyond the influence of 
the sea heaving on to the shore. The bar at the mouth of 
the St. Paul's river is not so bad as that at the mouth of the 
Mesurado river. I cast the lead where it was judged by 
the head Kroomen in the boat to be the shallowest part of 
the bar, and found two fathom of water. Inside of the bar 
there were two and a half fathoms of water. Three-fourths 
of a mile from its mouth, a creek called Gwin, came from the 
north, about forty yards wide, which no doubt is made up 
from rivulets flowing from low lands far back in the interior. 
The bank on the north side of the St. Paul's river is higher 
than that on the south side sf it. And it is so for twelve 
miles up the river, as a general feature of the land. There 
are three large rocks in the middle of the river which are 
covered at full flood— but at low water, present a diameter 
of twenty feet at the level of the water. When we came 
down the river at night, it was high tide at the mouth of the 
river, and our boat went over one of the rocks with a thump, 
thump, to our surprise and fear. The water of the St. Paul 
is brackish until you come opposite to where Stockton creek 
takes off' from it. Above that creek the water is used for do- 
mestic purposes by the families living on the banks of the 
river. The water of Stockton creek, at low water, is taken 
by shipping in their water casks for the ship's use. I was 
told in Claj' Ashland that in some years in the months of 
January and February, the Harmattan winds blow so hard 
ihat the water of the St. Paul is forced down in its natural 
current at low water, (it will be remembered that in these 
months the water is at its lowest stage, because the dry sea- 
son is near its close,) so that the flood tide makes the water 
brackish as high up as Clay Ashland, that it cannot be used 
for drink or cooking. The Harmattan winds have these pe- 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



77 



culiar features. 1. They blow at tbe time the land breeze 
blows, and rarely blow much longer than the land breeze 
blows. 2. They blow with greater force, and are dry winds, 
effecting the growth of vegetation. 3, They are confined to 
the months of .January and February. Some years they da 
not blow with the force and dryness that they do in other 
years. This was the case while I was in Liberia. There- 
mark was frequently made, "why, this wind to-day, must be 
the Harmattan wind." Some call this wind the Simoon of 
Africa. After entering the St. Paul's river, on the south 
bank, made by Bushrod Island, there are two half towns of 
natives under the nominal control of an aged woman, a 
widow of a deceased native King, who formerly owned this 
territory. The woman is called Mamma, and was opposed 
to the sale of Cape Mesurado to the Liberians. Her glory 
has departed. And the whole Island is not worth a battle 
for all the products that can be raised on it. As I passed up 
the river, I was pleased at the presentation of the farms, 
and many of the dwellings. The most indifferent houses 
will one day be removed for those of a better style. I stop- 
ped at the general landing place in Clay Ashland. I found 
an old lady with her table of cakes, and biscuit, and beer, for 
sale, under a shelter of boughs, I had to buy some for some 
boys who had spelt very well the words I had given out to 
them to spell. On my right hand was good evidence that 
the clay here was good for brick. The brick yard gave evi- 
dence also that brick was in demand. There is rock at hand 
for buildings. They have no lime stone. They have some 
oysters, and a small shell fish in great numbers. The shells 
they burn for lime. This settlement, notwithstanding the 
disadvantages it labors under by the sale of so much land to 
speculators in its neighborhood, is on the advance. It is but 
five years since its commencement, and may be set down as 
the largest township in Liberia, except Monrovia. The Re- 
gister's report states that entries have been made for thirty - 
three farm lots of ten acres each; eight farm lots of nine 
acres each; thirteen farm lots of seven acres each; seventy- 
seven farm lots of five acres each; making in all, nine hun- 
dred and ten acres of farm land. This of course does not 
include the tracts of land bought and covered by land war- 
rants. Clay Ashland has carpenters, masons, a blacksmith, 
a doctor, a ship builder, surveyor, shoe makers, and a mer- 
chant. The population of the Kentucky Settlement in 1854, 
was four hundred and twenty -four. I should judge from 
the additions settled here from Kentucky since that time, the 
population now must be five hundred and fifty, if not more. 
There was a commendable neatness in the streets and door 



78 LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



yards. I thought there was a spirit of enterprise as far as 
it could be shown in the absence of farming implements. I 
noticed here what I had observed in the Virginia Settlement; 
that is, bad ulcers on the feet and legs of men and boys. If 
the skin is broke, a sore is created by exposure and neglect 
of it. Walking about in the grass at night, or in the woods, 
increases the soreness. Persons will be confined by them to 
the house. In some cases there will be a loss of a toe, but 
always a loss of time. It was gratifying to me in looking 
around upon the people to hear from their own mouths an 
expression of willingness to live in Liberia. And I thought 
it was decidedly better for them to be in Liberia, having their 
health, because they could make a comfortable living easier 
than they could in the United States. Their labor here is 
better rewarded than their labor would be to them in the 
United States. I saw several w^ho were dissatisfied with 
Liberia. One had had a fight with a brother Liberian, and 
had bit off a part of his ear. The grand jury brought in a 
true bill against him for his mode of battle, and he, upon trial, 
was fined. He refused to pay the fine, and dared them to its 
collection. His house and lot were sold to meet the fine and 
costs — and he was angry, and vowed to leave the country — 
and he did so by returning to Maryland in the ship on her re- 
turn to Baltimore. Another was too lazy to live any where. 
I am sorry to say he was from Ohio county, Kentucky, I 
ui'ged him to industry. He had a wife and five children. 
She supported the family. I dined with Dr. Moore. He is 
a Doctor, Methodist Preacher, and a Judge of the Quarter 
Sessions Court. We had for dinner bacon and greens, fresh 
fish, chickens, sweet potatoes and cassada. A well of good 
sot'r. water furnished us drink. I found in his family a little 
girl he had had bound out to him, whose mother had died. I 
learned from the doctor that there was a lyceum in the town, 
which met once a week, and at times they had a good ex- 
pression of Liberian talent. The nearest native town to 
Clay Ashland is eight miles. This Settlement can muster 
over a hundred men. There are cannon and public ammu- 
nition always on hand to meet any attack from the natives. 
Most of the men and larger boys were out of Clay Ashland 
working on the farms to prepare for the crops to be planted 
before the wet season set in. I saw nothing that indicated 
the place to be an unhealthy place. I returned to the ship 
by the St. Paul's river at its mouth, where 1 found myself in 
her cabin at 8 P. M. The thermometer at 7 P. M., was 81°. 
This day closes the year 1857. It finds me at its close in 
Liberia, doing good I hope. Truly the Lord "directs my 
steps, and in Him, are all my ways." I give him thanks for 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



79 



his grace, and his blessings, and his watchful c?4.re over me 
on the water, and on the land. My health was never better, 
and strength fails not. "The sun has not smitten me by 
day, nor the moon by night." 

January 1, 1858. Thermometer in the cabin at 7 A. M., 
was 81°. I went on shore to spend the day in 

MONROVIA. 

I had arranged to pay this day, money, to some Kentucky 
emigrants, left to them by their late masters. Gold and sil- 
ver have to be taken out to Liberia for such purposes, as our 
paper money is not current there. The}^ have in Liberia a 
currency of their own. It is paper of the denominations of 
$5, $3, $1, and fifty cents, issued by law, and payable in gold 
and silver coin at the office of the Treasurer of the Repub- 
lic. The amount that can be issued by law, is $8,000 — $4, 
000 for Mesurado county, and $2,000 for each of the counties 
of Bassa and Sinoe. A Sub-Treasurer is appointed in the 
Bassa and Sinoe counties to pay the amount on demand al- 
lowed to each county. The money is a legal tender for pri- 
vate and public debts. The bills are signed by the Presi- 
dent of the Republic and the Secretary of the Treasury. 
Faith in the ability of the Liberian Government to pay the 
bills has to be exercised, as it is needful in taking a bank bill 
in the United States. The difference is, the Treasurer in Li- 
beria does not keep any gold and silver coin on hand speci- 
ally to pay the bills when presented; and here the banks 
issue more bills than they have silver or gold to redeem 
them, when a full and general call is made for cash pa3'ment. 
It is tweedle dee. and tweedle dum, in a time of great de- 
mand on both sides of the sea. I am sorry to say it was 
hard to g<3t gold and silver for any bank paper without going 
to a broker who shaved the paper, when I left home for 
Liberia; and when in Liberia, those who wanted gold and 
silver of the Treasurer of the Republic, could not get it, for 
it was not on hand. Her paper was at five per cent dis- 
count for gold and silver. This discount was confined to 
merchants who wished to make payments abroad for their 
goods. Maryland county having come into the Republic of 
Liberia since the passage of the act in issuing this paper 
currency, has had no provisions for a branch sub treasury of- 
fice lor its citizens; but the "paper" is a legal tender in that 
country. The Government receives gold and silver for du- 
ties from foreigners, and also takes her paper for their pay- 
ment. The same is done from her citizens for their dues to 
the Government; and the Government very readily pays out 
the paper to meet its appropriations by law. There is a me- 



80 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



talic currency of $960 in circulation in two and one cent 
pieces, of equal amounts. Mr. Samuel Gurney, of London, 
proposed to the Liberibn Government to have this currency, 
and he would pay the half of the amount, and half of the 
cost of the coinage in London, if the Government would pay 
the other half, which of course was done. Any individual 
can, by law, deposit money in the Treasury of the Republic 
on the responsibility of the Republic for repayment. A cer- 
tificate is given to the person depositing the money, signed 
by the Treasurer of the Republic, stating the date, and the 
amount of the deposit, and the time the deposit can be 
drawn out by the presentation of the certificate. No inter- 
est is allowed on the deposit made for an indefinite time, nor 
is any charge made for receiving, keeping or paying back 
the deposit to the depositor, or his order. The money de- 
posited for the three years, (the least time money is received 
on deposit on interest,) receive four per cent interest; that 
for four years, five per cent interest, and that for six years, 
and longer, six per cent interest. The interest is paid semi- 
annually, if required. Three months notice must be given 
of the intention to withdraw the money. Money cannot be 
deposited by this law but in the Treasuries of Monrovia 
and Grand Bassa. Ten per cent interest on all contracts is 
legal when agreed upon by the parties. Open accounts, 
notes, bills of exchange, or other obligations for money due, 
the interest is six per cent, when no interest is mentioned. 
In the case of usur}^, the principal and interest is forfeited. 
There is no law of limitation in Liberia in bar of the recov- 
ery of a claim against the Republic, or corporate body, or 
individual. The Government can be sued for the non -per- 
formance of a contract made bj^ an authorized person to act 
in her behalf! The suit is brought as against an individual 
with this change: "the Republic of Liberia, as defendant" — 
and the clerk of the court notifies the attorney of the Repub- 
lic to defend the suit. 

As I was very busy in attending to my business in a room 
in Dr. McGill's store-house, I could not accept of his invita- 
tion to dine with him, but his good lady sent to me a very 
fine dinner consisting of beef, chickens, plantain, eddoes, 
and sweet potatoes, with a good portion of pawpaw pie. 
The day has been one of great fatigue, and it suited my feel- 
ings to find that it is a practice in Monrovia for the stores on 
the wharfs to close up the business of the day at 5 P. M. I 
returned to the ship for rest. Thermometer at 7 P. M. 82°. 

January 2. The thermometer at 7 A. M. was 81°. I went 
on shore and stopped in Monrovia. There are in Monrovia, 
twelve stores, five lawyers, (who also have other occupations 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



81 



in life,) twenty- six carpenters, eighteen masons, three ship- 
builders, three blacksmiths, three cabinet makers, two tin- 
ners, three tailors, six shoe makers, one tanner, three coop- 
ers, three milliners, one public house, nine schools, three 
churches, (another is being built,) two consul's offices, with 
a good assortment of places for hot pies and cakes, and 
beer. I regret to state that spirituous liquors were sold here, 
though I S9.W no drunkenness, nor heard of none, but of some 
of the ship's crew that had been permitted to go on shore on 
the Sabbath. Perhaps those Liberians "that be drunken, 
are drunken in the night." Liberia had a laAV that laid a 
duty of one dollar per gallon on all ardent spirits, wines, 
clarets, cordials and malt liquor landed in the Republic, but 
it has changed that law, for a law that collects a duty of 
twenty-five cents on each gallon of rum, gin, and whisky 
landed in the Republic; thirty-seven and a half cents on each 
gallon of brandy, wines, and cordial; and on ale, porter, and 
claret, six per cent, ad valorem. There is a strong opposition 
to the countenancing of the sale of spirituous liquors in Li- 
beria by her valuable citizens, but as it is at home, some, re- 
spectable persons give their influence to that portion of com- 
munity to elect men to make laws that makes drinking a 
woe, a sorrow, and wounds without cause, and contentions. 

The leather is tanned in four weeks. The bark of the 
mangrove tree is used for tanning. The upper leather is 
better than the sole leather, in fineness of grain, and in tan- 
ning, as the sole leather is not tanned entirely through. The 
leather sells at twenty -five cents per pound. They have no 
good oil to use in dressing leather. Most of the leather 
made up here comes from the United States. Tailors find 
employment at prices similar to those charged by tailors at 
home. The cabinet makers find purchasers that call for the 
execution of some very fine cabinet work. The public house 
found patronage especially at the dining hour, from officers 
of the shipping in port, at $1 for dinner — the old price in the 
lower counties of Virginia when I was a boy — but then there 
was a good supply of toddy. There was not a barber's pole., 
nor shop in Monrovia, and I will add, in Liberia. Those 
who followed that profession in this country have exchanged 
it for the ministry, the law, and other pursuits of life in Li- 
beria. The water is soft, and diff*ers in its pleasantness ac- 
cording to its locality, and its being spring or well water. But 
all the water is affected by iron ore. The body of the citi- 
zens appear not to have any regular business to attend to. 
And many of the children of those who have accumulated 
wealth, do nothing of a domestic charecter, while almost all 
of the people think it necessary (so I judged) to have a na- 
6 



82 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



tive to carry a bundle, even to a half pound weight. And 
that native will be in a native dress. Liberia has a law that 
natives who are residents within the corporate limits of the 
several counties, whether adults or minors, shall be compell- 
ed to wear clothes, or pay a fine from one to five dollars. A 
native youth under eighteen years of age is not allowed to 
dwell in the families of colonists without they are bound for 
a specific term of years, according to the laws concerning 
apprentices; but these laws are a nullity throughout Liberia. 
There are citizens here, as in other places that 1 have visited, 
who have an excellent character for good sense, and upright 
deportment. Some of them are well calculated to give a 
forming character to the civil institutions of the country now 
in their infancy. And the present schools in Liberia (which 
will improve in standing for literary advantages, with the 
moral and religious instructions enjoyed in the country) will 
be adding yearly to the number of this class of persons. 
The good order that prevails in the towns, and the character, 
and adaptedness of the laws passed to the state of society, 
are standing proof of this belief. 

Monrovia is the Seat of Government of Liberia, and the 
Seat of Justice of the county of Mesurado. These advan- 
tages, with those of the Religious Societies in the United 
States, making this place the centre point of distributing 
their annual appropriations for the support of the ministry 
and schools of Liberia, must make Monrovia the most im- 
portant town in Liberia. It is the residence of many office 
holders, and the place of resort of those who are seeking for 
an office at the disposal of the Executive of the Republic. 
The officers of the Republic, the President, whose salary is 
;$2,500 per year. (He is elected by the people, and holds 
his office for two years. He is eligible to re-election.) The 
Secretary of State, whose salary is $600 per year; the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury, whose salary is $750 per year, and 
the Attorney General, whose salary is $400 per year, are re- 
quired to live in Monrovia. These officers are appointed by 
the President, with the consent of the Senate. The Vice 
President is elected by the people to serve two years. He 
presides in the Senate, and acts as President in case of the 
death of the President, or his removal, or resignation, or in- 
ability to discharge the duties of his office. His salary is 
$400 per year. The Senate holds its sessions in the second 
story of the court house, a room thirty by forty feet, -fitted up 
and furnished in a plain but neat style. It corresponds with 
the. finances of the Republic. It is accessable by two flight 
of stairs. A Senator is elected for four years. He must be 
not under twenty-five years old, and must own real estate 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



83 



worth $200. His pay is $3 per day. The Senate, when full, 
has eight members — two from each of the four counties. 
The House of Representatives hold its sessions in another 
building on another street. The lower floor of the building 
is fitted up something like an ordinary school house, with 
eleven unpainted desks for its members to sit at — a common 
table for the clerk, and a stand raised as high and as com- 
foi-table as a pulpit is in an old log meeting house, for the 
speaker. The lobby has chairs and benches to accommodate 
a few spectators or hangers-on. The Secretary of State has 
his office over head in the second story; for the building has 
but two rooms in it. I think no one would charge the Legis- 
lature with extravagance, if they made an appropriation to 
have abetter house, or better fixtures for the members of the 
house, to hold their sessions in. A person to be eligible to 
the House must have resided in the county he represents two 
years, not be under twenty-three years old, and own real 
estate worth $150. His pay is $3 per day. Mesurado 
county sends four representatives — Bassa and Sinoe, each, 
three, and Maryland one. The Legislature holds its sessions 
annually, in December and January. The session averages 
six weeks. The Goverment's naval schooner. Lark, brings 
the Senators and llepresentatives from Bassa, Sinoe, and 
Maryland counties, to Monrovia, and takes them back when 
the Legislature adjourns. I went to see the Honorable Sen- 
ate and House of Representatives in session. Each body 
sustained its dignity in the courtesy of its respective mem- 
bers toward each other in the transaction of business. There 
was much decorum, and self respect, without ostentation, 
shown by the members of both houses. There was a due 
proportion of age and youth in the selection of the members. 
I had not an opportunity to hear any discussions in the Sen- 
ate chamber, as there was no business before the body that 
called for such action. In the House, there was enough eli- 
cited by the petition of the Common Council of Monrovia, 
to enlarge the corporate limits of the city, to show that there 
\vas an "aptness of speech" in some of the members. I 
heard in the House the unbecoming, and to me, the unmean- 
ing cry, hear, hear, when a member was speaking. It is an 
apeing of the English habit in Parliament, and on public 
speaking occasions, that good taste should lay aside both in 
Africa and in England. Liberia should pay great attention 
to the election of her Legislators. Politics are becoming the 
order of the day. And small questions are made the ground 
of running opposing candidates. For example, the Consti- 
tution says, "no person shall be entitled to hold real estate 
ill the Republic unless he be a citizen of the same." "Ev- 



84 



LIBERIA, AB^ I FOUND IT. 



ery male citizen of twenty-one years of age, possessing real 
estate, shall have the right of suffrage." The Supreme Court 
of Liberia has decided an emigrant can at the fartherest time 
of three months, (the difference of time in holding the Court 
of Sessions when a sale of land can be sold according to 
public notice,) become possessed of real estate by purchase 
of land, or having drawn his farm land, and cleared two acres 
of it, have a deed for it, and be constitutionally a voter. But 
a party is springing up, claiming that emancipated slaves 
cannot, and shall not, be allowed to vote until they have 
been two years in Liberia. Another example — the Consti- 
tution gives to Mesurado county, four representatives, and to 
Bassa and Sinoe, each, three representatives, and states, 
that for every ten thousand inhabitants in each county, there 
shall be an additional representative. After the Constitu- 
tion was adopted, Maryland, that was a distinct Common- 
wealth, came into the Republic as a county, with one Rep- 
resentative and two Senators. It is made a party question 
that Maryland is entitled to three Representatives, as she 
has as many inhabitants as either Bassa or Sinoe has. Such 
party measures tend to bring forward speakers rather than 
legislators. Liberia is so young in leo-islation, that she is li- 
able, by the bodj' of her material, to have her young men 
govern her. Her mentors have much to do in guiding the 
ship of state. I had evidence before me in both branches of 
the Legislature that emancipated slaves can rise to high 
honors, and bear them well. I dined with Mr. James at a 
table ot fresh and salt provisions, with the usual vegetables. 
Education is much attended to in Monrovia. The Methodist 
and Presbyterian Missionary Societies in the United States 
sustain each, a high school here. The higher branches of 
English, and the Latin, and Greek, are taught more exten- 
sively in these schools than in any schools in Liberia. There 
are also schools taught by teachers who devote themselves 
to teaching as a profession. These schools are mainly sup- 
ported by charity. Some of the merchants in this place do 
a profitable business. I learned, that for &ome things, the 
Liberians pay seventy-five per cent profit, and the natives 
pay 175 per cent profit. There is not much palm oil, nor 
camwood obtained of the natives living in the interior back 
from this town or county. Several of the merchants keep a 
small vessel to trade up and down the coast, where these 
articles are chiefly obtained, and bring them to this town to 
sell to foreigners. By going up the Mesurado river several 
miles, and crossing over a tract of land four to five miles 
wide, you come to a branch of the Junk river. By taking a 
canoe on that river, you go down to Marshall, on the Junk 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



85 



river, which empties into the Atlantic ocean, forty miles 
from Monrovia. By this route, it is sixty miles to Marshall. 
Retmned to the ship. 

January 3. Thermometer at 7 A. M., 81°. This day be- 
ing the Sabbath, I went on shore and preached in the morn- 
ing in the Presbyterian church, and in the Baptist church at 
3 P. M. The Rev. Mr. Day, the Baptist Minister, has a 
large congregation. He is the Superintendent of the Bap- 
tist Foreign Missionary Society, South, and the Judge of the 
Supreme Court of Liberia. He is much respected for his 
good common sense, and his fair attainments in legal and 
theological knowledge. He is about fifty-five years of age, 
and emigrated from Virginia in 1830. My dinner to-day at 
the Presbyterian Minister's house, was fresh beef, chicken, 
bacon, sweet potatoes, and cassada, with a rich pawpaw pie. 
Returned to the ship. The thermometer at 7 P. M., 82°. 

January 4. Thermometer at 7 A. M., 82°. I started very 
early to see the other 

SETTLEMENTS ON ST. PAUL'S RIVER. 
I did not stop until I reached 

LOUISIANA. 

It is on the south bank of the river above Caldwell. The 
land is high, and lies well for farming back from the river. 
The soil is good, being clay with sand. In the settlement, 
there are several purchased tracts of land, as well as drawn 
farm lands. Only one range of ten acre lots to the number 
of twenty, have been taken up. The balance is owned by 
purchasers; and many of them do not live on their lands. 
Considerable cane is raised here. This land is thought to be 
better adapted to cane than other lands on the river. I 
should think this conjecture arose from an attachment 
and use of their own land. For land all along on the same 
side of the river, up to the falls, is similar in soil. Many of 
Mr. McDonough's servants settled here in 1843. This settle- 
ment embraces what was called King Governors Town, a 
native, where four hundred and forty acres in ten acre farm 
lots had been taken up; but many of them have been 
merged into larger tracts. The same feature of streams of 
water exists here in the rear of these tracts. Louisiana is op- 
posite to Kentucky. But few coffee trees have been planted 
here. Corn and arrow root are also raised; but cane may be 
said to be the staple production. There is an eight horse 
power steam sugar mill on what is called the Jordan farm, 
but is now, with the land adjoining it, owned by three broth- 



86 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



ers, named Cooper. The mill was in operation when I stop- 
ped in this settlement. They were making syrup. They 
make one hundred and thirty galhnis a day, but have made 
one hundred and fifty gallons in a day. It was very good 
syrup, and commanded in Monrovia, fifty cents per gallon by 
the barrel, and seventy-five cents by the single gallon. The 
person who was making the syrup, brought his cane from 
across the river to grind it. He used oxen with a slide 
about the mill. The neighbors bring their cane to the mill 
to be ground, Those who had the charge of working the 
mill, seemed to understand their business. I noticed that 
the honey bee was very troublesome about the premises. 
There is nothing in the way for a good thriving farming pop- 
ulation here, but the present system of cultivation. What- 
ever is raised, does not do justice to the land in showing 
what it can do to remunerate the owner by a proper cultiva- 
tion of it. The native laborer works on his own system, and 
the Liberian has adopted it. If a proper system of agricul- 
ture was adopted and carried out, the employment of the 
native would be profitable to him, while the Liberian would 
be greatly enriched by it. The native would learn how to 
cultivate the earth for himself, and would practice the sys- 
tem before his tribe. There are cattle, and sheep, and 
swine here, but in a limited number, because the grounds 
are left too much exposed to have many of them running at 
large. It is high time to consider what is best for profit and 
example to others in having a well laid out, and a well 
managed, and properly cultivated farm. There are some 
owners of tracts of land in this settlement who reside in 
Monrovia, who can do this, and have thereby a better re- 
muneration from their land than that they now get. In 
1854, the number of inhabitants was two hundred and ten. 
When I mention the number of inhabitants in the towns, I do 
not include natives, except they have become citizens of the 
Republic. 

The next Settlement I visited, was 

WHITE PLAINS. 
This cannot be called a town, because in its municipal af- 
fairs it belongs to Millsburg on the opposite side of the river. 
It lies above Louisiana on the same side of the river. 
It was commenced as a Methodist Missionary Station, hav- 
ing two hundred acres of land assigned to it. A female 
high school is here. It was vacation in the school. A white 
female is superintendent of it. The scholars number twen- 
ty — many of them native girls. There is also a shop erect- 
ed to learn native boys different trades, especially the car- 
penters trade. Four native boys were woi king in the shop 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND FT. 



87 



at thi? time. The girls live in the school building. There 
is a house for the male superintendent of the mission to live 
in. A farm has been opened up, and a great many coffee 
trees have been put out, many of which are bearing. The 
ground is rolling as you go back from the river — having in 
the rear a small stream of water. The water here is good, 
for those who like soft water. But soft water acts upon the 
system of those who are accustomed to strong limestone wa- 
ter, when they first use it. It should be used sparingly, which is 
no easy thing in this climate, by new residents. There is a 
half town of natives outside of this tract of two hundred 
acres, in the interior, in whose vicinity a native school a part 
of the time is taught by a member of the mission. It is not 
practicable to teach native children and colonists children in 
the same school in the present state of the natives. The 
native children must be clothed, and must be taken entirely 
from their parents to keep them clothed. Otherwise, they at- 
tend the school irregularly, and that attendance is often with- 
out having the clothes on that have been given to them. It 
makes it expensive, and a waste of money, to keep them 
clothed with this capricious practice. A school in my judg- 
ment should be established, in the present condition of the 
natives in the midst of their own children, and the wearing 
of clothes be urged upon parents and children as fast, and 
by the best methods, that the good practical common sense 
of pious teachers, and missionaries, can adopt. It is not my 
place, nor my errand at this place, to contrast the expendi- 
ture on this mission station with its fruits. But I would ex- 
press most decidedly my opinion, that its location is good, as 
a healthy place. There are nine families living on each 
side of this mission station, having more or less land of their 
own. Some have bought land, and others are living on their 
ten acres. Corn, cane, coffee, arrow root, with a little cot- 
ton for domestic use, with much cassada, sweet potatoes, &c., 
are raised here. They have some cattle, sheep, goats, swin« 
and poultry. What a change for the better would a good 
plow make in these fields ! The plowman would soon, very 
soon, overtake the present reaper. The population of thir 
settlement is included in that of Millsburg. 
The next settlement above White Plains, is 

HARRISBURG. 

This place is frequently called North Carolina. It has 
been but recently commenced. It lies abreast of the falls of 
the river St. Paul, which at high water, can be ascended by 
canoes and small row-boats, having an helmsman of great 
skill to guide the boat. At low water they are not passable 



88 LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 

for boats but at great risk. Harrisburg is separated from 
"White Plains by a creek. I was told that a short distance 
up this creek, there were falls that furnished good water 
power for mill pm-poses. But in the present state of agri- 
culture, there can be no use for a mill here, except for saw- 
ing lumber. If corn were raised for bread, as it can be, and 
which the people, in mass, formerly used, a grist mill could 
find employment. At the mouth of this creek, on the Har- 
risburg side, there is a flat that can be used as a landing 
place for the settlement. It is immediately at the foot of the 
falls. The land of this place is rolling. It may be said to 
be in knobs varying in size from forty to seventy feet in 
height. It is a clay soil with fine broken up red stone. The 
hills are not too steep to plow, but are too near to each other, 
with too much ascent, for a town. Sixteen farm tots have 
been taken up; thirteen ten acre lots, and three five acre lots. 
Several of the hills are cleared. All is in a new state. It 
is a healthy place. The falls will be an impediment, I judge, 
to its growth, until the water power furnished by the falls is 
called for. They have a Presbyterian church here, a day 
school, and Sabbath school. The Presbyterian Minister is 
the person known through the African Repository, and the 
New York Journal of Commerce, as Uncle Simon. He was 
a slave residing in the Choctaw Nation of Indians. He, and 
his wife, and three children, were purchased by individuals 
in the neighborhood where they lived, and by contributors 
through the Journal of Commerce in New York City. He 
was an Exkorter among his associates before his removal to 
Liberia. After his arrival in Liberia, he was licensed to 
preach by the Presbytery of Liberia. He raises some cot- 
ton. Cotton grows on the cotton tree, that grows to a great 
height. This cotton is not gathered. But the cotton that is 
used, and is of good quality, is planted, and grows on a shrub 
that is from seven to eight feet high. I measured one of the 
shrubs five feet from the ground, and it was seven inches in 
circumference. On the branches were pods out of which 
the ripe cotton had fallen; pods containing the cotton ready 
to pick; pods bursting open by the swelling cotton, and the 
new blossom from the forming pod. There are no fields of 
cotton in Liberia. A half mile back from the river is a half 
town of natives. They are peaceable, and cultivate in com- 
mon, what land they need to raise their food. An effort is 
being made to have a school among them. By walking past 
this town, and going on to the rise of a cleared hill, I saw 
that the land lying back in the interior was rolling, with 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



89 



heavy timber on it. The thermometer at 2 P. M., in the 
shade, was 92°. 

I crossed the river to 

MILLSBURG. 

The census of Liberia, of 1844, states that Millsburg was 
settled in 1828. But the Register's books say that Gov. Ash- 
man settled it in 1824-5. In 1828, one hundred and seven 
emancipated servants from Georgia and North Carolina, by 
two different expeditions, were placed here. It is the oldest 
Settlement, except Caldwell, on the St. Paul's river. The 
town is laid out below the falls in town lots, with farm lots 
adjoining the town. One hundred and ninety-one town lots 
of one-fourth of an acre have been drawn, but most of them 
for different causes, have been abandoned. There may be 
thirty-five of them now occupied. The upper part of the 
town is low on the banks of the river. Sometimes in the 
rainy season, the river rises so high as to overflow some of 
the lots in that part of the town. It of course does some in- 
jury to the lots; but never does the high water take off the 
fences. Up to 1844, four hundred and thirty-five emigrants, 
including the first settlers, had been sent to this town. Of 
this number, twenty-two were free born. There have been 
drawn in this township, on this side of the river, (for White 
Plains is included in its civil affairs,) sixty-three farm lots of 
ten acres each, six hundred and thirty acres; six farm lots of 
seven acres each, forty-two acres; ten farm lots of five acres 
each, fifty acres — in all, seven hundred and twenty-two acres. 
To these lots some purchased land is to be added. There 
are some farmers here who will compete in the raising of 
coffee, rice, cane, and ground nuts, with any Settlements on 
the river. There is a mill here to grind sugar cane, but it 
employs human power to turn it. I noticed some clearings, 
and preparations by fire, and the axe, for crops on new 
ground. And back from the town, the land was more roll- 
ing. A few had cattle, but they were not used to the plow. 
It may be asked, could not the farmers in Liberia, get plows 
to work? I can only answer — one said he had a plow, but it 
was broken, and he could not get it mended in Liberia as it 
was a cast plow — another said, we cannot raise money 
enough to send to the United States for our plows, and our 
merchants do not keep them for sale — another said, our bul- 
locks are not strong enough to plow with. I noticed in the 
list of premiums at the fair, that a Kentuckian living in Clay 
Ashland, had made a plow, and took a premium of $5 for it, 
being a special article presented. This plow is proof that 
the whole iron work done on a plow can be made in Libe- 



90 LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 

ria of wrought iron. And I can bespeak for the maker, that 
he can make to order, other plows. There are sheep, and 
goats, and swine, in Millsburg. I noticed on the main street, 
two churches, Methodist and Baptist. Each denomination 
has a day school, and a Sabbath school. There is no white 
person living in the town. They have cannon and ammuni- 
tion sufficient for defense. They can muster seventy men. 
But these settlements on the river are so near to each other, 
that there is no danger of an attack from the natives. And 
beside, the natives, for years, I am told, have shown a friendly 
disposition toward the Liberians. Liberia, I was informed, 
had some of her best citizens living in this - township; and 
the remark was made to me, that the place was improving 
in farming. But its flatness immediately on the river does 
not speak as favorably for its health as a place desirable for 
new colonists to settle in. In 1844, there were two hun- 
dred and twenty-one souls in this Settlement. In 1854, there 
M^ere three hundred and fifty -five. In passing down the river, 
on the north side, I came to the 

NEW YORK SETTLEMENT. 

Strictly speaking, this is Kentucky — for Kentucky com- 
mences by purchase at the south-west boundary line of Mills- 
burg. It is called New York, because some settlers from 
New York located here. A tier of farm lots has been laid 
out on the river. Nineteen lots of ten acres each, and four 
lots of five acres each — in all, two hundred and ten acres, 
running a half mile back from the river, have been drawn by 
emigrants; but land has been bought for two miles back in 
the rear of these lots. Some are living on these lands, and 
others are holding them tor speculation. Coffee trees have 
been planted — while cane, with some of the people, is the 
great article of cultivation. The land is of the character of 
that in the Kentucky Settlement. The clay is so much mix- 
ed with sand as not to hold water, and to make it easy of 
culture. Within this settlement is the Richardson farm. He 
was the most energetic and practical farmer that Liberia ever 
had. This is seen by going on to his farm, even though he 
is not there to carry it on. He came to Liberia in 1851. He 
bought land warrants, and purchased Government lands, to 
have a large body of land in one tract. He built a large 
two story brick house for a steam sugar mill, which he had 
ordered to be sent to him from New York, having remitted 
$1,200 in advance upon it. The brick he made on his own 
land. Here were barns, and stables, and sheds. He worked 
seven yoke of cattle, had several cows, and a number of 
sheep and swine, ducks and chickens, and turkeys. He had 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



91 



divided bis front lot by a rail fence, put up after tbe Virginia 
fashion, to keep his stock from his fields planted with cas- 
sada, sw^et potatoes, corn, sugar cane, &c., &c. Under the 
sheds were carts, plows, harrows, chains, hoes, spades, frows, 
wedges, &lc., showing full preparation for farming his land. 
Grass was cut for his cattle. He employed from thirty lo 
forty men, natives and Liberians. His chief attention was 
given to raising sugar cane. In carrying on his farm he met 
much of the expense by trading with the natives in the in- 
terior. The Mandingo tribe, some sixty miles from the sea 
coast, furnished him with cattle, camwood, ivory, and cotton 
cloth, in exchange for tobacco, calico, kettles, &c. The ar- 
ticles he got that he did not want, he found a ready sale for, 
from the butcher, the merchant, and his neighbors. I was 
told that the Mandingo tribe raised a good quantity of cot- 
ton. They make cotton cloth for their own persons as a man- 
tle, and sold such cloth to other tribes. It is woven in strips 
nine inches wide, and sowed together. Some of the cloth is 
plain, while other pieces would be an alternate strip of 
black and white, or blue and white. I obtained a piece of 
the cloth, which is three and a half yards long, and one and 
three quarter yards wide. Some of their cloths are made 
fine, and are so woven as to admit the head through a hole 
at its top, leaving the body of the cloth to hang over the 
body down below the knees. Such patterns are more or less 
ornamented. This style of clothes are worn by Chiefs and 
Kings. The price that Richardson would sell them at, 
would vary from $1 to $5, according to kind and quality. 
There are evidences that cotton can be an article of export 
from the interior. Richardson's work for himself, and his 
adopted land, is over. He was drowned in 1856, as he was 
going down the river in a canoe to Monrovia. The wind 
was high, and he directed the native men in the canoe to 
paddle the canoe to the other side of the river to avoid the 
wind, by being under the cover of the bank of the river. 
They protested, and warned him of the danger of upset- 
ting, but he would turn his course thither. He did so, and 
soon the canoe upset. He could not swim, and drowned. I 
went to his grave on his farm. A plain tombstone tells who 
sleeps there until the morning of the resurrection. In view 
of his loss to Liberia, well may we say, "God's ways are not 
as our ways." But Richardson's agricultural mantle will 
fall on some other colored man, in due season. The sugar 
mill he ordered had arrived, and is now being moved up to 
his farm to be set to work by his brother-in-law, who has ta- 
ken the oversight of the farm. The syrup I saw making at 



92 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



the steam mill on the Jordan farm, was from the cane raised 
on the Richardson farm. 

This being the last of the Settlements on the St. Paul's 
river to visit, I took the boat to return to the ship. My mind 
was busy on my way with reflections on what I had seen day 
after day. In every settlement on this river, I had seen fam- 
ilies, who were setting good examples in their moral habits, 
their sobriety, and their use of the political and civil institu- 
tions of Liberia. Here was land on which could be raised 
articles that would enrich the farmer, and increase by their 
commerce, the political strength of the Republic. But the 
people, to realize these results, needed the decision of Solo- 
mon to be impressed on their minds: "where no oxen are, 
the crib is clean, but much increase is by the strength of the 
ox." This people did not come to this land with the mo- 
tives before them that induce to the settlements of new wes- 
tern lands in the United States. To make money was not 
the great attraction to move here. It was to have civil lib- 
erty. Still, as they can have a good home in Liberia, they 
should let that be a strong motive to action to have in pos- 
session the good things of the land. The people here want 
a good outlet for the productions they can raise largely on their 
lands. They now raise them in driblets, and sell them in 
driblets. No railroads nor caniils can start in their facilities 
to take their produce to a market. They must move slow, 
and especially so, when they cannot get cash lor their labor. 
If merchants would buy coffee for example, giving^^eleven 
cents cash for it, (for any community can use cash more ad- 
vantageously to their interest than they can use barter,) it 
would no doubt make a change in the agriculture of this land. 
And if some enterprising mercantile friend in the United 
States would propose to give the Liberian merchant twelve 
cents for the coffee of the first quality that is raised here, 
that mercantile friend would not be a loser in his pocket, nor 
in my judgment, a foe to the welfare of Liberia. It is due 
to this people to say, I would not have known from any 
thing I saw in passing up and down the river, that I was in 
a heathen land, or that I was reminded that a struggle was 
going on here between heathenism and Christianity or that 
I was "in a desert land, and a waste howling wilderness," 
"where no comfort is." What I saw that made a deep im- 
pression of regret on my mind, was their system of agricul- 
ture. For until that is successfully changed for the better, a 
clould of doubt appertaining to the support of their civil gov- 
ernment, is on my mind. Certainly I have read of more 
struggle, more self denial, and more real want, in the early 
settlements in Western Pennsylvania and New York, in 



LIBERIA, AS I FOTOD IT. 



Northern Ohio and Indiana, tlian these Liberians have had 
to pass through. Perhaps the anxiety of the friends of Li- 
beria has led them to look for advance, to be by this time, 
like unto a Chicago, forgetting that the Israelites could not 
make the tale of bricks in a day when they had not the straw 
on hand to do it. But the reader can form his own judg- 
ment of this part of Liberia, as it is my aim to place the 
country before his mind for that purpose. Having this ob- 
ject.continually in view, I hope he will not condemn my too 
great minuteness of statements. I returned to the ship at 9 
P. M. The thermometer at 7 P. M. was 82°. 

January 5. The thermometer at 7 A. M. was 82°. Hav- 
ing learned from the Captain of the ship, that the ship would 
not stop at Marshall, a town down on the coast in Mesurado 
county, 1 went on shore to get information of the place. 
The Secretary of State (who owns a farm there) informed 
me that it was a small place, and was on the decline. It 
was on the north bank of the Junk river, and was a Port of 
Entry. It is noted for its oysters, in quantity and quality. 
Much lime was made from the burnt shells, which found a 
good market, especially in Monrovia. There is a good steam 
saw mill in operation there, which is owned by a mercantile^ 
firm in Monrovia. It cut on an average, fifteen hundred feet 
per day, and furnished at Monrovia, whismore boards an inch 
thick, at $3 50 per hundred; poplar, $3 per hundred, and ce- 
dar at $3 75. Shingles sell in Monrovia, and in the other 
Settlements, at $5 per thousand. They are made of red 
oak, whismore, and of the upper mangrove. The latter 
timber is considered the most durable. I find, by referring to 
the census of 1844, that Marshall was first settled by placing 
there, thirty-seven recaptured Africans in 1835. In 1836, sev- 
enty-four free born and emancipated servants from Virginia 
settled here. Up to 1844, the natural increase with other 
emigrants locating here, the population was one hundred 
and forty-two. During the years 1841-2-3, the imports 
amounted to $5,311 12. The exports being palm oil, cam- 
wood, and ivory, were $5,798 04. The population in 1854 
was one hundred and twenty three. I returned to the ship. 
The thermometer at 7 P. M. was 81°. 

January 6. Thermometer at 7 A. M. was 82°. The ship 
weighed anchor for Buchanan, commonly called Bassa. Bas- 
sa is a term used to designate a large tract of country. Its 
divisions are Grand Bassa and Little Bassa. The wind was 
very light, so that our progress was very slow. The imme- 
diate coast was low. But back from the coast it is rolling 
ground. After passing the mouth of Junk river there are 
many high hills, some fifteen to twenty miles back from the 



94 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



coast. From the Admiralty Chart Coast before me, I find a 
range of hiiis extends thirty miles parallel with the coast. 
Saddle Hili is one thousand and seventy feet high. Table 
Hill is one thousand one hundred feet high. Still farther 
down, there are peaks of land very high, ranging from two 
hundred and ten to two hundred and forty feet high. And 
still farther back, there are several mounts, as Tobacco 
Mount, eight hundred and eighty feet high. The chart lays 
down several good landing places on this part of the coast. 
As night drew on, it became very hazy. At 8 P. M. the Cap- 
tain judged we were off Buchanan. We cast anchor, and 
"wished for morning," though all was calm. Thermometer 
at 7 P. M. was 82o. 

January 7. When it was day, w^e discovered that we 
were several miles from our port. We weighed anchor, but 
had a strong current against us, and but a light wind to aid 
us. The thermometer at 7 A. M. was 82o. At 3 P. M. we 
cast anchor off of 

BASSA. 

The Liberian county of Bassa commences at the south- 
eastern bank of the Junk river, and runs down on the sea 
coast to the Sanqvvin river, making it one huudred and fifty 
miles long. Its average breadth is forty miles. There are 
fifteen trading phaces with the natives within this county, on 
the coast, at which the Liberians, English, Americans, Ger- 
mans, and French, trade more or less. A license has to be 
taken out of the Collector's office, called a coasting license, 
to sell goods to the natives: also, duties have to be paid on 
the goods sold to them. They trade in cotton cloth, tobacco, 
rum, powder, guns, bi'ass and iron kettles, earthenware, (fee, 
and take in pay, palm oil, camwood, ivory, <fec. Five leaves 
of tobacco, as assorted in Liberia, are counted a head, and 
five heads are called a bar which purports to weigh (it is 
never weighed) one pound and a quarter. Four bars are 
estimated to weigh five pounds, and are given to a native 
for a kroo of palm oil. I'his is the fixed payment for a kroo 
of oil, and a kroo of oil is the fixed payment for that quan- 
tity of tobacco, let the value of either article be higher or 
lower, better or poorer. A kroo is six gallons. A gallon of 
palm oil weighs seven pounds. A kroo weighing forty-two 
pounds, and the tobacco avei aging fifteen cents per pound, 
brings the oil at two and six-sevenths cents per pound. It 
sells in the United States from eight to ten cents per pound, 
seldom lower, but often higher. The oil is in a congealed 
state. Four fathom of cotton cloth is called eight yards. It 
is measured by stretching out the arms at full length, which 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



95 



measure is called two fathoms. Eight yards are given for a 
kroo of oil. Cotton cloth that is striped or spotted with va- 
rious colors is called satin stripes, and royal checks. They 
are of English manufacture. When first sold to the natives 
they were fast colors, and took the preference over American 
cottons. But they are not now always fast colors, as speci- 
mens in my possession show. The piece contains eighteen 
yards, and the cloth is twenty-nine inches wide. It would 
compare with our six cent calico as to quality. It retails in 
some of the settlements at twenty-five to thirty cents per 
yard. A piece of satin stripe or royal checks is given for 
three kroos of oil. A brass kettle weighing six pounds, at 
the cost of forty-five to fifty cents per pound, is given for 
three kroos of oil. A kettle weighing one and a half pounds, 
buys two kroos of oil. The natives prefer American kettles 
to those of ihe English or German, because they are heavier 
and are made of a better material. It is plain there is not 
in this trade with the natives much of the principle, "do 
unto others as you would that others should do unto you." 

Bassa county was first settled in 1832, by one hundred per- 
sons from Monrovia, to prepare the way for others expected 
from the United States. Twenty-five of this number after- 
wards moved to Cape Palmas. Up to 1844, there had been 
settled in this county other emigrants, to make the number 
four hundred and sixty-one. The natives had two towns 
two miles and a half apart, called Bassa and Fishtown. 
The natives in both of these towns have made new settle- 
ments up the St. John's river. These two towns were in- 
corporated as one town, by the name of Buchanan, after the 
Governor of the Liberian Commonwealth, from 1835 to 1841. 
In 1835, the natives who had moved back up the river, with 
other tribes, made an attack upon the colonists. Twenty of 
the colonists were killed, but the natives were severely pun- 
ished by the Liberians. 

The ship anchored between the mouth of the St. John's 
river and Fishtown. The St. John's river rises some distance 
back in the country, and running a south-west course, emp- 
ties into the ocean with a mouth about four hundred and 
fifty yards wide. It has, 1 am told, the worst bar of any 
river in Liberia, except the Cavalla river below Cape Pal- 
mas. The landing of goods for all the places on this river, 
and its tributai'ies, is on the sea shore between Bassa and 
Fishtown. It would be a i-isk, except in most special favora- 
ble opportunities, for a vessel of twenty tons to cross the bar. 
I crossed it in a row-boat once, which satisfied me with its 
tossings of the boat, and the wetting of my clothes with its 
spray. It is distant from here to Monrovia, eighty-one miles. 



96 



LIBERIAj AS I FOUND IT. 



Inside of the bar the St. John's river is navigable for vessels 
of forty tons for twelve miles up its stream, when the falls in 
the river v^ill only allow small row-boats and canoes to pass 
them. The river receives several creeks on each side of its 
banks, until it reaches within three -fourths of a mile of its 
mouth, then it receives the Mecklin river coming from the 
north-west, and then the Benson river coming from the south- 
east. The Mecklin river, named after a Governor of Libe- 
ria of that name, rises a great distance in the interior, and 
runy, as it approaches the coast, for many miles, parallel with 
it. It is navigable for vessels of thirty tons for a great many 
miles, and is about two hundred and fifty yards wide at its 
mouth. Most of the palm oil that is shipped from this point, 
comes down this river. There is very little doubt but the 
great bulk of the water of this river comes from the small 
streams arising from springs or wet places distributed amidst 
cultivable land back from the sea coast. The Benson river 
is a small stream, navigable for row-boats for five miles, and 
for canoes for five miles farther up. Buchanan lies on the 
south-east side of the St. John's river, having its north-east 
line running across the Benson river. The town is laid out 
three miles square, and is divided into two wards, upper and 
lower; but it is next to impossible to use these names when 
the common cognomen Bassa and Fishtown have been used 
for time that I cannot give day nor year. 

I first visited Fishtown. This part of Buchanan was set- 
tled in 1852. The ground commences to rise at the sea 
beach, and in a hall mile back, attains a height of twelve 
feet. It is a sand formation, evidently from the heavings of 
the ocean. You are in the town on landing, and by travel- 
ling at the slow rate, that must be made in such a lose soil, 
of a quarter of a mile, we came to a house and store, and 
an inclosed garden. The house was a comfortable framed 
building, owned and occupied by a person who was a Bap- 
tist Minister and a merchant. He and his family were liv- 
ing on the sales of goods, and the sales of things taken in 
payment for those goods, from the natives. His garden fur- 
nished him with the improvements of an additional quarter 
of an acre, with the usual vegetables and fruits of this coun- 
try. He had six head of cattle, six goats, and four sheep. I 
measured his bull, and a cow — both were two years old. The 
former, from the horns to the tail, was five feet two inches. 
He was three feet and four inches high, and girthed four 
feet ten inches. The cow measured six feet long — three 
feet one inch high, and girthed four feet ten inches. The 
calf was a fine calf in proportion to the size of its parents. 
The cows have calves in this country every eleven months. 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



97 



The cattle were fat, and had very fine soft short hair. The 
good woman of the house made two and a half pounds of 
butter a week from two cows. I learned from this merchant 
and preacher, as we strolled through the town, that he had 
often gone back into the interior of the country in pursuit of 
palm oil, and that he had found before he left the limits of 
the town, a wet piece of ground, with a stream of living wa- 
ter running through it; passing this, he came to a tract of 
dry land. After passing that, he came to a Bamboo swamp, 
three-fourths of a mile wide, he judged, which made up to- 
ward Benson river. After he had crossed this swamp, the 
land was good and high, and the farther he went back it 
was rolling, until he came to high hills. This swamp was 
on the north-east limits of the township of Buchanan. The 
stream flowing from this swamp, formed Mission creek, which 
takes its name from an Episcopal Mission established on its 
bank, mid-way between upper and lower Buchanan. The 
Mission House is a large building in which a school for na- 
tive children had been taught. The Missionary and wife had 
left for a visit to their friends in the United States. This 
creek, on its passage through the corporate limits of the 
town of Buchanan, by being blocked up by sand at its mouth 
most of the dry season, makes a pond for some length. It 
is necessary to bridge it, to connect the communication be- 
tween the two wards of the town. For in the rainy season 
it is not passable — but alas, it is not yet bridged — the appro- 
priation of $150 of the Government toward its erection 
not having been paid. As we pursued our walk, it was 
plainly evident that the soil could not sustain a population 
of industriou.s people. It is not farming land, nor is there 
any richness in the soil, or any thing in the location of the 
land to excite the hope that a town could exist at Fishtown. 
The natives could live here, following the business their name 
indicates — fishermen — but as to emigrants coming to this 
country, who are accustomed to farming, and settling down 
here, is a strange idea to me, when there is much land suitable 
for that purpose, elsewhere, to be possessed. A quarter of an 
acre farm is too small, even in Liberia. I found one poor fel- 
low whose wife had, a few months past, presented him with 
three children at one birth, had been constrained to add an- 
other farm of a quarter of an acre to his already improved 
farm, to provide for them. He gave $30 per quarter of an. 
acre. He did this rather than go outside of the limits of the 
town, and draw five acres of land. Only sixty-five lots were 
claimed by those living here. Many of the first settlers 
were dead, or had moved away. The number of inhabitants 
in this ward was one hundred and thirty. At present there 

7 



98 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



is no school kept here. There had been a Receptacle built 
of logs for emigrants to acclimate in, but a tornado, in the fall 
of 1855, blew it down. There were no emigrants in it at 
the time. Many of the people saw hard times to get along, 
.and I did not blame some of them for begging some assis- 
tance. And after all, an enterprising person could have here 
an annual income by planting out the coffee tree. For I 
saw some coffee trees growing here in their prime. I re- 
turned to the ship, a fellow passenger taking with him a 
bottle of milk for our coffee. Thermometer on board at 7 
P. M. 82°. 

January 8. Thermometer at 7 A. M. 82°. 1 went on shore 
to visit 

BASSA, OR UPPER BUCHANAN. 

After landing on the beach, I crossed what would be the 
mouth of Mission creek, if it were not filled up with sand 
from the washing of the sea beach. The creek is a very 
sluggish stream in this part of the dry season; and that part 
of it that was open, back from the beach, was a foot deep. 
In the rains the creek rises and forces away the sand at its 
mouth, and its waters mingle with the raging waters of the 
St. John's on its bar. Upper Buchanan is not a desirable 
location for land or health. It has a marsh running back 
into the town which is laid bare twice in twent3^-four hours. 
It has mangrove swamps along the edges of Benson river, 
and a swamp that comes into the town. There is but one 
street that runs through the improved part of the town without 
having marsh or swampy land to prevent its passage through, 
except in the outskirts in the eastern part of the town. The 
soil is white sand, with very little loam in it. The water is 
soft, and is tinctured with the taste of its land formation, 
similar in taste to the water of Norfolk, Virginia. The peo- 
ple depend on wells, and obtain water by digging twelve to 
fifteen feet. The place is the Seat of Justice for Grand 
Bassa county. It has a court house and jail. It being a 
Port of Entry, it has a Collector's office. There are two 
framed churches, Methodist and Baptist. The Episcopalians 
worship in the court house, and are preparing the materials 
,for a church. There are six stores in the town, which do all 
the mercantile business of the county. Several of the houses 
cost from $150 to $2,500, and some did not cost more than 
$50. The orange, the banana, with its large bunches weigh- 
ing a dozen pounds or more, the guavo, the mango plumb, 
and different garden vegetables, with the cassada and sweet 
potatoes, indicate that even this sand will yield products for 
man's support. But it cannot be denied, that in the vegeta- 



LIBERIA, AS I FO0ND IT. 



99 



ble line, the growth bespeaks poverty of soil. It is the palm 
oil trade that keeps up the town. This trade enables the 
people to buy oil of the natives, and to sell the oil at an ad- 
vance to buy what their families need for their support after 
consuming what the town lot produces, I was in many of 
the dwelhng houses of those who held offices, and in those 
of pri\^ate citizens, and there appeared a comfort, and cleanli- 
ness, and family order, that was gratifying to me. There 
was a difference in families as to the filling up the rooms 
with various things, that some wives and daughters will per- 
suade the fathers to buy; yet, in all I saw% I would not know 
the houses were occupied by colored people, did I not look 
in their faces, I was astonished at the rapid and strong 
growth of the coffee tree in this sandy soil. The trees were 
suffered to grow too high for picking the berry profitably, and 
to admit the rays of the sun to aid the growth of the berry. 
One man named John Dunn, set free by Andrew Mulder, de- 
ceased, of Woodford county, Kentucky, and sent to Liberia 
in 1836, had six hundred bearing trees. The trees, I thought, 
would average eight pounds if carefully picked. The price 
of picking is twenty cents per bushel. He was reputed to 
be a rich man. He had added to his town lot other lots, and 
had one hundred and twenty acres of farm land. He had 
five children born in this town. There were eight persons 
sent by Mr. Mulder; two only of them are living. The 
weeds do not find much nourishment from the sand to grow 
rank and large; nor does the grass spring up and grow as 
the weeds and grass grow on the clay soil on the ISt. Paul's 
river. The coftee tree seems here to have the full benefit of 
what a loose sand can give it. There is more cofiee g^athered 
in this county, for sale, than on the St. Paul's river, consider- 
ing the number of farms. It is true, that only the year 
1358-7, can be adduced to show this. In that fiscal year, 
the exports from this county, give eight thousand nine hun- 
dred and eighty pounds, as shipped abroad. The thermom- 
eter at 10 A. M. in the shade, in this town, was 87°. 

I took a boat and went up the St, John's river. The river 
in width for six miles averaged two hundred and fifty yards. 
Two miles up the river is Factory Island, which contains 
some fort}^ acres of land. Most of the ground is so low that 
it can be worked only in the dry season. A number of years 
ago an attempt was made, at much expense, to have a High 
School kept on this Island. The why, I cannot explain^ even 
to the satisfaction of its then supporters. It was, as might 
have been expected from its position, a failure. Experience 
has taught many salutary lessons in regard to the ways of 
doing good in this land. The school was removed to a place 



100 



LIBERIA, A3 I FOUND' IT. 



higher up on the west bank of the river, about sm miles from 
Buchanan. I passed the place in full view. Bat the school 
has not flourished much since the Rev. Mr. Day, its former 
teacher, moved to Monrovia. This school is for native chil- 
dren. Higher up the river there are three other Islands, but 
they are small; and from the present abundance of land on 
the shores of the river, there is no need to cultivate what lit- 
tle arable land is on the islands. Beyond these Islands 
stood, on the east bank of the river, a two story framed 
house, built and owned by a native, who has professed Chris- 
tianity, and is a much respected citizen, as 1 should judge, 
from the manner the people spoke of him in regard to his 
morals and money transactions with them. This is eight 
miles from Buchanan. On the west bank of the river is 

BEXLEY. 

This settlement was commenced in 1837. The township 
is laid out three miles square back from the river. It has 
two tier of ten acre lots laid oif with an avenue between 
them. The banks of the river are higher here than any 
where down the river to its mouth. We landed at a farm 
having the house standing a quarter of a mile back from the 
river on an ascent of ground, sixty feet above the level of 
the river. The water was soft, sweet, and good, as 1 tested 
it on reaching the house. In going back this first tier of lots, 
and entering on the avenue, 1 was struck with the palm tree 
hedges. For a mile and a half, I was very much taken up 
with them. It was indeed, a new sight to me. Let me tell you 
about them. The palm nut is planted in the line for the 
hedge, fourteen inches apart; and in five years it is a per- 
manent living hedge. And it can be a very profitable hedge. 
It is a hedge that man, nor beast, nor hog, (if he be not a 
beast) nor fowl, cannot pass through. An opening is left for 
a gate. Its growth is very rapid, there being no frost to put 
it back. Each year, as the body grows, the stems or leaves, 
which put out in clusters all around the top, are cut off, 
dwarfing the tree, until it gets the height of four feet, or 
higher it you please. When at the height you wish, you 
have in the body a size that brings each body so near to 
each other as to prevent a passage between them for any 
depredator. W hen the hedge is as high as required, then 
the stems or bunches which grow from eight to ten feet in 
length around the top of the tree (having the appearance of 
an umbrella turned inside out) are thined out to let in the 
sun that the nuts may grow and mature. The nuts grow in 
clusters, each one in its separate socket, to the number of 
three to four hundred in a bunch, supported by a strong 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



101 



stem that puts out at the top of the tree. Three to four 
bunches can be had from a tree in a year. Thus the tree is 
formed for a hedge, and furnishes the palm nut for palm oil, 
for palm butter, and for any purposes that oil is used. The 
tree, if left to grow, will sometimes run to eighty feet high 
without a limb. Generally they grow fifty feet high. The 
natives, by practice, climb like squirrels up the trees for the 
nuts. The nut is somewhat oval in shape — some of them neary 
the size of a pullet's egg. It is red when ripe. In a few years 
the body of the tree is fourteen inches diameter. For a hedge, 
the nuts are planted in April or May. Some cut down a 
tree when the nuts are ripe, and from the roots spring up 
hundreds of scions to be transplanted. There is a law for- 
bidding the cutting down of the palm tree on the public 
lands. The penalty is $5. As I passed along, I could see 
ten acres, and five acres, thus inclosed. The only objection 
to such hedges might be their height, and the dense close- 
ness of the leaves on small tracts of land, shutting out a free 
circulation of air, in such a climate as they have here. In 
this county a great deal of palm oil is made for sale by the 
natives, Perhaps more is made by the natives in this county 
than in the other counties in Liberia. A square pit is 
made in the ground something like to tan vats. The place 
is filled with palm nuts, when in a ripe state. Women 
trample them, when passing into a decomposed state, to 
press the oil out of the shell of the nut. They then 
let w^ater into the vat, which separates the oil, which is 
taken up by the hand into a dish. It will be seen that this 
is a wasteful way to get the oil, as much of it is absorbed by 
the ground, and much of it adheres to the broken pieces of 
the bark. The oil is got by the natives from the shell or 
bark. They do not use the kernel to make oil of. This is 
called the Bassa way of making palm oil. Another way is 
to bury the nuts in the ground until they are soft to the pres- 
sure of the finger. They are then taken out and put in ^a 
box or small canoe, and tramped or beaten into a jelly. It 
is next put into a cloth woven with small meshes. Warm 
water is thrown on the mass, and it is strained into a box or 
canoe in which is water, that the oil may rise to the surface. 
Others will boil the mass that is tramped or pounded, and 
then strain the mass into water for the oil to rise on the top. 
Either way is a heathenish way to get the oil from the shell. 
It has been found within a few years past, that a better oil 
can be made out of the kernel, which is called by some, palm 
lard. I saw some of it in Buchanan. One and a half gal- 
lons are made from a bushel of kernels, by pounding them 
with a pestle in a mortar, and then boiling the whole to ob- 



102 



LIBERIA, AB I FOUND IT, 



tain the oiL If a more chemical process was used, a greater 
quantity of oil would be obtained from a bushel of kernels^ 
The above method is used by a Liberian. The natives have, 
within a few years, saved the kernels to sell. Formerly they 
were thrown away. The English, Dutch, and French, buy 
them, giving fifty 'cents per bushel. In 1856-7, there were 
exported from this county, three hundred bushels of palm 
kernels. Oil fi^om palm nuts can be made one of the greatest ar- 
ticles of tirade in the world. The oil obtained from the kernel 
sells in Liberia at seventy five cents per gallon, and that 
from the shell sells at thirty-seven to forty-four cents per gal- 
lon. The palm tree can be planted just where the owner of 
land pleases to have them. He can have an orchard of them, 
or a hedge around his farm, or scatter them on his premises. 
At different times in the year he can gather the nuts and 
make an oil for which the whole civilizee world is increasing 
annually its demands. It is a singular fact, that the stump of 
a palm tree, seventeen inches in diameter, will so far rot in 
sixteen months, from the cutting down of the tree, that it 
can, by the force of a man, be turned up out of the ground. 
The heart of the tree is a pith. I dined in Bexley on fresh 
mutton, cassada, sweet potatoes, rice, and eddoes, with Mr, 
Jackson from Shelby county, Kentucky. He is a magistrate, 
and a very highly respected citizen. He was sent to Libe- 
ria with other fellow servants, in 1844, by J. H. Wilson, Esq., 
ol' IShelby county. I found arrow root was raised here more 
extensively than I had found it in other settlements. Mr. Jack- 
son had raised six hundred pounds on less than an acre of 
ground, and sold it at nine to ten cents per pound. It is 
planted in March. He thinks, in rich ground, well attended, 
eight hundred pounds can be raised to the acre. It grows to 
the height of two to three feet. The root is tapering, some- 
times growing eight inches long. It comes to its growth in 
five months. Four to six pounds of flour can be obtained 
from a bushel of roots. It can be used for bread or starch. 
Ginger is also raised here. It comes to its growth in eight 
months. It is planted in hills. By good cultivation the yield 
is great. The African ginger is noted for its goodness. Mr. 
Jackson took to the fair at Monrovia, the ginger from one 
hill, that weighed one hundred pounds. He took premiums 
at that fair on arrow root, ginger, eddoes, and tallow can- 
dles, to the amount of $12. He has a fine orchard of coffee 
trees. There are many valuable citizens in this township. 
The land is clay mixed with sand, and sufficiently rolling for 
cultivation. In some lots I saw gravel, and in others, the 
appearance of iron ore. The timber of the country was of 
various kinds, and of good growth. The face of the coun- 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



103 



try, and of its soil, was very similar to that about Clay Ash- 
land and Harrisburg, on the St. Paul's river. There were 
also the similar streams of water. The water was soft and 
much better than that at Buchanan. The houses were none 
of them equal in value or size to those on the St. Paul's 
river; but the occupants of those in Bexley showed a better 
class of farmers — though I am sorry to say they did not 
use oxen, or mule, or plow. Once a plow was used, but it 
broke, and was cast out, because the castings could not be 
supplied there. The thermometer at 4 P. M. in the shade, 
was 86°. There are in Bexley two churches, Methodist and 
Baptist, also two day schools, and two Sabbath schools. In 
1844, it had one hundred and thirty-five inhabitants. This 
town has not had any additions by emigrants settling in it, 
since 1845. It holds its own by births. In 1854, there were 
one hundred and ninety inhabitants. They can bring into 
field, when necessary, sixty men. Cannon, and powder, and 
ball, are on hand to be used when needed. But the natives 
have not molested the Liberians in this county since 1851. 
There is a settlement just above Bexley on the same side of 
the river, but it numbers only ten persons. A family consist- 
ing of four persons have gone a mile still higher up, and 
have given the name of Rosamburg to the farm. I returned 
to the ship at 7 P. M.. and found that there had been landed 
at Fishtown, sixteen persons from the emigrants remaining 
on the ship, who were destined to this country. Twelve of 
them were adults, and four were under twelve years of age. 
There was no Receptacle in any town in the county, and 
therefore, the Agent of the American Colonization Society, 
at Buchanan, rented vacant houses for them to live in du- 
ring the six months of acclimation. There is a physician in 
the stated employ of the society residing in Upper Buchanan, 
at a salary of $1,000 a year. The provisions landed for these 
emigrants from the ship, for their supply for six months, were 
four barrels of mackerel, four barrels of beef, three barrels of 
pork, ten barrels of flour, three barrels of kiln dried meal, 
one barrel of sugar, one barrel of syrup, one bag of rice, one 
bag of coffee, one box of soap, one box of pepper and mus- 
tard, half chest of tea, one bag of salt, one keg of butter, 
and one barrel of vinegar. A box of dry goods was landed 
to be sold toward defraying expenses. Thermometer at 7 
P. M. was 820. 

January 9. Thermometer at 7 A. M. was 82°. I went on 
shore to visit 

BASSA. 

On my way to see President Benson's farm, I passed the 



104 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



court house. A native Commission Court was in session. 
This court is appointed by the Legislature of the Republic, 
by agreement with the native tribes living within the bound- 
aries of the Republic, to settle all native difficulties that are 
not violations of the laws of Liberia. The settlement of the 
difficulties are on the basis of their native rules, handed 
down by tradition, or agreed upon to be laws in the tribe. 
The court in session was to settle a difficulty between a na- 
tive husband and his native wife. I entered the court room 
as an observer. I found the merits of the case were, the 
wife was not well treated by her husband, and went back to 
her father's house. The father was unwilling to have her 
stay at home, as she had a husband, who had bought her, 
and paid him the money for her, as his wife. The mother 
thought she was sick, and sent her to the Doctor's house (a 
native.) This was done without the consent of the husband, 
and he sent word to her to come home. She would not re- 
turn home, but staid so long as to have a very strong attach- 
ment for the Doctor, presenting him with a child. This con- 
firmed her in the decision she would not return to live with 
her husband. The husband demanded his wife to be given 
up to him. The Doctor refused. And the court was called 
upon to restore to him his rights, according to the customs of 
his fathers. She was on the witness's stand when I went in 
to hear the proceedings. She stated her grievances in the 
language of her people. Her dress was after the style of 
native women. With a strong loud voice, and with gesticu- 
lations that evinced her earnestness, she addressed the court. 
What zeal, what indignation, what clearing of herself, she 
manifested. Her long guttural, sonorous words, expressed 
deep emotions. She did not cast a wishful, nor disdainful 
eye, in all her allusions, on her former liege lord. When she 
paused, and the interpreter told the court in English what 
she had stated — oh, what a contrast ! There was nothing of 
the native wildness. It was English most languidly uttered. 
It was tame. It did not express her feelings. She had em- 
ployed a lawyer to defend her, but he was no Cicero. She 
lost her case. The Judge ordered her to be delivered up to 
her husband, as his property, according to the laws of the 
tribe in such cases, and the Doctor to pay the cost of the 
suit. The husband, being in his native dress, 1 had an 
opportunity to see the human frame expressing the feel- 
ings of the mind when it was intensely excited. His re- 
venge, his gratification at his success, his joy that he had 
her in his power again, the determination of what he would 
do with her, were all seen in his muscles, and the heaving of 
his stout chest, as they were expressed in his countenance. 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



105 



He was a good subject for a Hogarth. There were some 
twenty natives sitting by and around the Doctor, in another 
part of the court room — all in silence. Except the rejoicing, 
exulting husband, a thunderbolt striking the building would 
not have caused such momentary stilness among the other 
natives, as was seen, when the decision of the court was 
given. In this silent scene, the wife walked out of the court 
house with a firm decided step. Her eye leered not toward 
husband, or lover, on either side of her way. I rose up, as it 
became me, seeing a woman in trouble, and followed her to 
the door. There on the ground at the door, was her mother, 
and the little one who was one of the causes of the trouble 
of the Othello. When the woman was beyond the charge 
of treating the court with contempt, she opened her mouth. 
There was decision expressed. The gestures told of her wil- 
lingness to have her head cut off, before she would go back 
to her first love. Pardon me, reader, if I have erred in giv- 
ing to you this court scene. I went to Liberia to see things 
there as they are, and to tell you what I saw that expressed 
customs and character. But you must know her voice drew 
out from the house, all the natives. The husband showed 
that he had seen bursts of feeling before this morning. He 
was so tamed, that he stood still, and opened not his mouth. 
She walked off with a step that showed a resolute purpose 
of mind, leaving the child with its grand-mother. None 
seemed willing or bold enough to follow her, and I took my 
way to the President's farm. I had to take a long walk, be- 
cause a swamp and marsh prevented me from going direct 
along the street in the lower part of the town to his house, 
that would otherwise have lead to it. The farm has its 
greatest interest in the fact that it is the largest coffee farm 
in Liberia. It is estimated there are over ten thousand cof- 
fee trees on the farm. Perhaps not more than fifteen hun- 
dred are good bearing trees. The trees looked healthy, the 
orchard was clean of grass and weeds, and the sand was 
white, with a very slight appearance of mold. The coffee 
looked well, and the kernels fine and large. Children were 
hired to pick the coffee from the trees. The gentleman who 
had charge of the farm, was very polite and attentive in 
showing us the grounds. He found it difficult in getting a 
clean pick of the coftee from the trees. He showed to us 
the mill used to separate the shell from the coffee. It was 
similar to a fanning mill, except the fans were taken out, and 
a cylinder, eight inches in diameter, covered with a piece of 
tin punctured like unto a grater, was in their place. In front 
was an inclined board, with a similar piece of punctured 
tin, which inclination was so brought down as to leave a 



106 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



space large enough for the coffee to pass through rasped, if 
I may so term it, out of the shell. It served a good purpose, 
but left particles of the shell on the husk of the coffee, in 
proportion to their dryness when thrown into the hopper. 
For the coffee is covered with a thin membrane as it lies in 
the cavit}' of the hull. Since my return to the United States, 
I have been endeavoring to find some better method to sep- 
arate the coffee from the hull, and have it sent to Liberia. 
There is much waste of coffee that comes to maturity in Li- 
beria. If all was gathered that ripens, there would be many 
more "baskets full" picked than are now gathered. There is 
a very fine palm tree hedge around this coffee orchard. The 
President's house is passing away, and he is putting up an- 
other and more substantial building. But like many political 
men in our land, his own private interests are much neglect- 
ed, while he has the care of all the state on his hands, as all 
politicians think. He makes use of rain water kept in a cis- 
tern to drink, but I did not think it preferable to the well wa- 
ter in Buchanan. This farm is within the corporate limits of 
the town. It was occupied as a farm before the town was 
laid out. When it was laid out it embraced the farm. There 
was in front of the house, a mangrove swamp on the banks 
of the St. John's river; and between his yard, and the streets 
of Buchanan, was a marsh that could be passed only by 
canoe or boat when the tide was up. I had to return by the 
long winding way that I had come to get to the river's bank 
to cross over to Edina, by reason of the marsh referred to. 
And fair reader, for I believe some lady who has turned her 
mind to Liberia, as the future home of her servants, will read 
my report, would you have believed it, when I got down to 
the St. John's river, there was the native distressed wife, shall 
I call her, in charge of the constable. She had made her way 
to the river, determined to drown herself Her husband was 
following, a long way off^ not to see the distressing tragical 
event, and the Doctor and his party were near by, speaking 
loudly and fiercely their opinions, in a tongue unknown to 
me. Are all matches, or sales of girls for wives, made in 
heaven? I crossed over the St. John's river to 

EDINA. 

It is built on the south-east bank of the river Mecklin. A 
point of land commences at the south-eastern end of the 
town, and runs nearly a mile, where its point forms the bank 
at the mouth of the river St. John's. This place was first 
settled in 1833, by thirty-two men, who came from Monrovia 
to prepare the way for a settlement by those who were ex- 
pected from the United States. When these thirty-two men 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



lOT 



had prepared houses for their families, their families came 
to them from Monrovia. The whole number in the thirty- 
two families, was one hundred. In a short time five of the 
families moved to Cape Palmas Colony. Up to 1844, it had 
received additions to its population, which numbered in that 
year, two hundred and two. This town was laid out three 
miles square — a part of it in town lots of one-fourth of an 
acre, and the other part of it in farm lots of two to ten acres. 
Edina has two swamps and two marshes which cannot be 
drained and made tillable land. These swamps and marshes 
are in the heart of the town plot. I drank of a spring of 
living water. It is soft and similar in taste to that across 
the river in Buchanan. Water is obtained by digging ten 
to fifteen feet, when clay is found. A store is opening this 
day in this town. The inhabitants do their trading in Buch- 
anan. There are several good framed houses in the town, 
and one of them had a lime hedge as its front yard fence. 
It was put out on the same plan and distance as an osage 
orange hedge is put out in Kentucky. It had been trimed to 
the height of four feet, and become so thick a hedge that 
neither fowl nor pig could go through it. Whether the hedge 
will bear limes, time must tell. It had not yet borne any. 
Twenty-five farming lots have been taken up, and many 
living in the town, cultivate a few acres on their farm lots. 
The usual productions of Liberia are raised here. Coffee 
has received the attention of many persons. Many of the 
inhabitants expressed to me their fears that they should have 
no more emigrations from the United States to settle in their 
township. 1 cannot tell about that. But I learned, from un- 
questionable authority, that seven wives in this town, pre- 
sented their delighted husbands, each, with two children at the 
birth — making in all, fourteen children. I am in doubt whether 
shall have seven readers who will say such an event took 
place in our house the same year. There are Methodists 
and Baptist churches in this town, and also day and Sabbath 
schools. I learned that seven native children were in the 
day schools. I dined with the Rev. Mr. Cheeseman, a Bap- 
tist Minister, and a Judge of the Court of Quarter Sessions. 
He has been a Senator from this county. His library is a 
good collection of three hundred books on divinity, law, and 
miscellaneous subjects. We had for dinner fresh fish, bacon, 
chickens, and the usual vegetables of the land. When leav- 
ing his house, I saw in his yard a native, with a very strong 
good cutlass in his hand. Mr. Cheeseman told me the man had 
made it himself. He worked at the blacksmith's trade. He 
was a christian convert, spoke broken English, and was cov- 
ered in his person by a large toga thrown over him, leaving 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



one arm bare. The people of this town have cattle, goats, 
sheep and hogs, which were running at large. There are no 
oxen. The plow and cart are not to be seen here, 

Farmassetta is a part of this township, commencing at the 
junction of the rivers Mecklin and St. John's, on the south- 
west, running in a northerly direction along the St. John's 
river, to the boundary line of Bexley township, and then runs 
back from the river two miles in a south-westerly course to 
the Mecklin river, thus forming a triangle of land. The land 
is laid out in farm lots. Ten families have drawn farms 
here. There is a day school taught in the settlement, and a 
Methodist church is organized there. There is a part of this 
settlement on the St. John's river that is low ground. It is 
overflowed in the month of September, when the river rises 
by the rains. For three or four days some of the farms are 
overflowed in part. I should judge from what I saw of Ed- 
ina, that it was a more healthy location than that of Bassa. 
And as the palm trade is mostly from up the waters of the 
Mecklin, I should think that the trade would centre 
here. It is true, as commerce now stands, it is more conve- 
nient and less expensive to land goods from ships on the 
beach at Bassa, but I query whether goods might not be 
landed north of the bar for Edina, on the beach abreast of 
the town, as cheap. 

I returned by water to Bassa, and landed at the point 
made by the Benson river entering the St, John's river, 
where the old Government House stood. The Government 
House is gone by reason of age. The point of land is two 
hundred and fifty yards wide, and about four hundred yards 
long. There are some large noble looking trees standing on 
one side of this point of land. Beneath these trees lies bu- 
ried, Gov. Buchanan. He died here from the effects of the 
African fever, in 1841. He was an active, brave, and untir- 
ing friend of Liberia. I regret to say that the blocks of 
stone which the American Colonization Society sent out to 
be erected over his grave as a monument, expressing its es- 
timation of his worth, lie scattered around his grave as they 
were landed. I met William T. Smith in Buchanan. He 
was from Lexington, Kentucky, and had been a waiter in 
the Phocenix Hotel in that place. He resides in this town, 
has thirty-fivs acres of land, and expressed himself satisfied 
with living in this country. He could leave it if he chose to 
do so, as he had means at his command. I returned to the 
ship, and learned from the Captain, that he should leave to- 
night for Greenville, farther down on the coast, but should 
stop at Bassa on his return from Cape Palmas, and I could 
then finish my examinations of this county. Thermometer 



LlBEaiAj A3 I FOUND IT, 



109 ' 



at 7 P. M. 820. At 8 P. M. we weighed anchor and struck 
sail for Greenville. 

January 10. Thermometer at 7 A. M. 8lo. This day be- 
ing the Sabbath, I preached on board of the ship at 11 A. M. 
We were sailing with light winds, but with a tavorable cur- 
rent. We passed the river Cestos, commonly called River- 
cess. It is in 5° 27' north lat., and 9° 25' west long. It is 
forty-one miles from Bassa. It takes its name from the tribe 
of natives who live on its banks. 1 am told by a gentleman, 
who is well acquainted with this coast, that the river Cestos 
has fifteen feet of water on its bar at high water, and that a 
vessel of one hundred tons can safely cross it. The natives 
up this river bring down palm oil and other African articles 
of export to sell to traders at the mouth of the river. A Li- 
berian trader lives at its mouth, who trades for himself. A 
few other Liberians live here and trade for Americans, Ger- 
mans, and English. This place may become a very impor- 
tant settlement at a future day. When that day shall come, 
it is very desirable that health should be regarded in the se- 
lection of it. And instead of scattering small clusters of 
people up the river, there should be selected a point that is 
healthy, with good water, and a plenty of land for a large 
settlement. And when an increase of numbers requirer still 
another place to be settled, let the same course be pursued 
for the location. This river is in Bassa county. We passed 
in sight of what is called the Devil's Rock, and the tops of 
six other rocks w^ere observable. They were sufficiently 
high lo announce to the mariner that it was dangerous to 
be in their midst when the ''winds blew," though the coast 
chart said the water was deep around them. The "Devil's 
Rock," i should judge from our position, was fifty feet high, 
and seven hundred feet in circumference, just above the wa- 
ter's edge. It showed the ridges on its sides, which all ex- 
posed rocks have in this latitude, whether standing high out 
of the sea, or raising their heads high up on land. A few 
miles below this rock is the Sangwin river, the boundary line 
between the counties of Bassa and Sinoe. Sangwin river is 
fifty-nine miles from the Cestos river, and is twenty-three 
miles from Greenville, the County Seat of Sinoe county. 
Sinoe county commences at the south-east bank of the San- 
gwin river, and runs down the sea coast to the south-east 
banks of Grand Sesters river. It is seventy-six miles long, 
and averages forty miles in width. Their are eight native 
trading towns within the bounds of this county, above and 
below Greenville, at which Liberians, Germans, Americans, 
English, and French trade more or less. Most generally the 
foreigners employ a native, to go back and trade off the 



110 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



goods put in his charge, for oil, camwood, ivory, &c. A few 
miles below Sangwin river, is BafFou Bay. This Bay, I am 
told, is not a large inlet of water from the sea. And from 
the rocks plainly to be seen near to its entrance, I judged it 
would not always be a safe retreat for vessels in the time of 
a storm of wind blowing on to the shore. It is a bold shore — 
but the reef of rocks for miles above and below it, give not 
a wide birth even to vessels lying at anchor in its waters. 
Soon the coast commenced making a gradual bend, until it 
furnished a cove for a town, while it also afforded a good 
roadstead for vessels to anchor in seven fathoms of water a 
mile from the shore. And here we anchored, for he had ar- 
rived at 

GREENVILLE. 

The town was built a quarter of a mile back from the sea 
beach. The night closed in upon us with calculations for 
to-morrow's work. Thermometer at 7 P. M. 8lo. 

January 11. Thermometer at 7 A. M. 82^. I went on 
shore to see Greenville. This portion of Liberia was the pur- 
chase of the Mississippi and Louisiana Colonization Socie- 
ties. The sea coast runs down south-east three-lourths of 
mile past the town to a point making the west bank ol the 
Sinoe river. A large flat rock, some six feet above tide wa- 
ter, stands so far over toward this shore, outside of the bar of 
the river, that the entrance over its bar has to be made on the 
eastern side of the river, where a point of rocks called the 
Blue Barre point, comes down abruptly to the river. This 
bar has six feet of water on it at high tide. Crossing the bar, 
you keep on the eastern shore side, following the channel in 
its curve of nearly a half circle, when you bear off for the 
western bank of the river, on which Greenville stands, with 
its main streets running east and west. It is three-fourths of 
a mile from the bar to the chief landing place. On this wa- 
ter passage, three large mounts, sufficiently separated at their 
base to make their formations distinct of each other, stand on 
the Blue Barre side of the river, giving grandeur to the 
scenery. They rise in a sugar loaf form, one hundred and 
fifty feet, with soil sufficient to clothe the trees on two sides 
of them with full foliage; while on the other side that is seen, 
is the bare rock. The Sinoe river comes from the interior 
some distance, having a south-west course to the sea. It is 
navigable from the bar for eighteen miles to its falls, having 
from eighteen to twenty feet of water in its channel. It re- 
ceives on its course to the Atlantic, several creeks on both 
sides of its banks. Greenville was first settled in 1836, by 
thirty-six colonists who came from Monrovia. Their object 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



Ill 



was to prepare the way for emigrants to settle here who 
were to come direct from the United States. In 1838, 
twenty of the thirty-six returned to Monrovia — the balance 
remained at Greenville. In that year, three free-born blacks, 
and thirty-four slaves, emancipated by the will of Mr. An- 
ketell, of Mississippi, settled here. In 1844, the population 
of Greenville was seventy-nine, having had additions from 
other settlements. From 1844 to 1855, emigrants have set- 
tled in Greenville, and in different places back from the sea 
coast. Since 1855, no emigrants from the United States have 
settled in this county. 

Greenville is an incorporated city, nearly a mile square, 
covering about five hundred acres of land. Except three lots 
of eight, nine, and eleven acres, the balance of the land is 
divided off into twelve hundred and fourteen lots of one- 
fourth of an acre each. Many of these lots were vacant 
because the}^ belonged to minor heirs — others had not found 
a market while some had been bought by citizens who did 
not wish to improve them. The streets are kept clean by 
the standing ordinance requiring such work to be done. The 
improved lots have, according to the taste of the owners, 
planted on them the variety of tropical fruits in Liberia, in- 
terspersed with coffee trees. The houses on the whole, are 
good comfortable dwellings; some of them were worth from 
$150 to $3,500, while others did not cost more than $45. I 
judged, that within the corporate limits of the town, there 
are one hundred and thirty acres of swamp and marshy land, 
which throws it into three separate divisions. Cause-ways 
ot different widths are made to connect these divisions. There 
being no draft animals in the town, no great inconvenience 
is found by the people in going across these swamps on foot- 
bridges, or narrow cause-ways to different parts of the town. 
The laws of Liberia allow the taxes for license to sell as 
traders or auctioneers in a town or county to be used for 
town and county purposes, as in making bridges, roads, &c. 
This place is a Port of Entry, and has a Collector's office. It 
has a court house, a jail, and the different public offices of 
the county. The Agent of the American Colonization Society 
resides here. The mayor of the city must be a citizen worth 
in real estate, $150 — -a common councilman must be worth 
$50 in real estate, and a voter must own real estate in the 
town to vote. I dined with a merchant who emigrated from 
Savannah. I had for dinner soup, roast chickens, palm but- 
ter, roast beef, rice, sweet potatoes, and cassada, with Lon- 
don ale, which, by-the-by, is kept for sale in all the stores in 
Liberia. It will be understood that there is a line of steam- 



112 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



ers running fi'om Liverpool to Lagos, starting from each 
extreme point so as to stop at Monrovia on the 15th day of 
each month, going and coming. All the letters in Liberia 
intended for the Ijnited States by this line by the way of 
England, are sent to Monrovia to be mailed. This line of 
steamers gives the Liberians an opportunity to order London 
ale and other condiments. There are six stores in Green- 
ville. There is no store in other towns in the county. Be- 
tween the town and the sea beach, there is no vegetation to 
be seen, it is a body of sand. 1 was very often reminded 
along tiie shore of similar strips of sand reaching back from 
the sea in Princess Ann county in Virginia. Whether the 
Atlantic has retired in any measure in her breadth, from the 
indications ol sand on its eastern and western banks, I can- 
not tell, but sure 1 am, the sand may as well be in the 
depths of the water, as to be "high and dry" on either side 
of her shores for some distance back, as to growth of vege- 
tation. The Captain was desirous to go on to Cape Palmas, 
and would have to stop here on his return, 1 therefore di- 
rected my steps to the river, and took the boat for the ship. 
The wind was rising, and was strong, but it was ahead wind 
for our ship. The thermometer was at 7 P. M., 80°. 

January 12. The wind still ahead. It was very cold du- 
ring the night to our outward man, which had been often 
called to bear much, when a sheet was over it, especially 
about 1 o'clock A. M. The thermometer at 7 A. M. was 7(5°. 
We were at sea, because ''the winds were contrary." At 
2 P. M. the thermometer was at 80° in the cabin. We tack- 
ed ship to run in for the coast. A dark night, a hazy atmos- 
phere, and no bottom answering to a twenty-five fathom line, 
told us the shore was not at hand, and the helm obeyed the 
order of the Captain to stand out to sea again. I turned to 
go to my room to sleep. Patience is tried on the aea as well 
as on the land. 

January 13. Early this morning, the broad sea, and the 
heavens, filled our vision. There was -the light in the fir- 
mament of the heaven that had just divided the day from 
the night;" and on every side of us were the waters that 
bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life." 
God saw that all was good — while we, because Cape Palmas 
was not in sight, thought the wind ought to -'chop round" to 
take us right on our way. Thermometer in the cabin at 7 A. 
M. 80°. We soon tacked ship, and steered for where Cape 
Palmas could be found. At 12 noon, the thermometer was at 
82°. Soon the cry w^as heard, land ahoy ! Land indeed 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



113 



was in sight. It kept constantly looming up, until it was dis- 
tinctly seen to be 

CAPE PALMAS. 

Its church spires, the light house, and the female high 
school, on the point of the Cape, threw a charm over our 
feelings that made the whole scenery very pleasant to be- 
hold. At 2 P. M. the ship dropped her anchor abreast of the 
cape in seven fathoms of water, a mile and a half from the 
landing of the town of Harper. We were now two hundred 
and ninety miles from Monrovia, and eighty-six from Green- 
ville. This had been a Colony commenced and "cared for" 
by the Maryland State Colonization Society. In 1850, it 
asked of that Society permission to become an Independent 
Republic. The request was granted, and it declared itself 
to be the Commonwealth of Maryland, of course, in Africa. 
It did not remain long in this distinct civil organization. In 
1856 it had to ask aid in money and men of Liberia to de- 
fend their homes trom the attacks of the natives. The as- 
sistance was granted by the prompt offer of the money aid 
by Dr. James Hall, the General Agent o-f the Maryland So- 
ciety, who was then at Monrovia. Peace was soon restored, 
and the people of Maryland, in Africa, voted to ask the Li- 
berian Government to receive the state as a county of Libe- 
ria — the state dissolving its state existence. The Legisla- 
ture of Liberia met at the call of the President of Liberia, 
and granted the petition, and it is now Maryland county in 
Liberia. The county begins at the south-east bank of Grand 
Sesters river, and runs down on the sea coast to the eastern 
line of Grand Taboo, or the line formed by the river San Pe- 
dro on the east, being one hundred and three miles long, and 
averaging thirty miles in width. Cape Palmas, or rather 
Harper, has a safe roadstead. But the rocks that the surf is 
constantly breaking over near to the shore, show that ves- 
sels, in order to have room to get out to sea, should anchor a 
mile or a mile and a half from the town. On the south side 
of the cape is an Island called Dead Man's Island. It is 
one-fourth of a mile from the main land, about three hun- 
dred feet long, one hundred feet wide, and fifteen feet above 
the water. It is composed of sand stone. Over some parts 
of it the sea throws its spray when it strikes its side. The 
natives have been in the habit of burying their dead on this 
Island. Their practice was, I was told, to wrap the dead 
body in a cloth, and take it to the Island. A box or broken, 
canoe M^as placed over the body, and both canoe and body 
were left to return to dust. This practice is now forbidden 



8 



114 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



by the Liberians so far as to burying their dead on the 
Island. 

The cape is in 4° 22' north lat. and 7° 44' west long. It 
is a point of land extending for a mile into the sea. It may 
be said to take its rise so far back as to take in Latrobe. It 
falls off With a ragged descent into the sea, of sixty-five 
feet. A light house of forty feet height stands near to its 
brow, with a large two story framed building near to it, own- 
ed and used by the Episcopal Foreign Missionary Society of 
the United States, for a Female Orphan School. The light 
of the light house can be seen in a clear night, eighteen 
miles, at sea. Cape Palmas river empties into the sea on 
the north side of Harper. It has a bar making over from its 
north bank so far towards its south bank, that a very nar- 
row passage is left for boats to pass from the sea into the river. 
A vessel of thirty tons may pass through this channel at 
high tide. After passing this bar, the river is navi- 
gable for boats for five miles, and then canoes have to be 
used. The trade down the river is comparatively nothing. 

I went on shore at 4 P. M. to see 

HARPER. 

This is a small town. On the bank of the river, there are 
four stores, kept in four stone ware houses. There is no 
road to ascend the hill on which the dwelling houses are 
built. The ways of ascent of the hill are by foot paths 
leading from each store. And I could keep my balance bet- 
ter in going up those paths than in coming down. It is the 
same in going down to two springs of water on the north 
side, or to the spring on the south Me of the hill. One of 
the springs never goes dry, and furnishes a great part of the 
.town with water for domestic and drinking purposes. The 
^best spring is well protected from the sun's rays by a shelv- 
ing rock. There is a well of eighteen feet depth near to one 
of the stores, that has water in it nearly all the year round. 
The water in the springs and well was soft and good, par- 
ticularly the spring water. There is but one street in Har- 
per, on which are built twenty -three houses. Two stores are 
/kept on the hill. There are seventy-nine lots laid off on the 
plot of the town. But the ground is not wide enough to 
'have but one tier of lots on each side of the street. The 
land may average two hundred feet wide before it broke off 
suddenly so as not to allow generally a garden spot of much 
depth to most of the lots that are improved. A lot contains 
one-eighth of an acre. Harper is a port of entry, and has a 
collector's office. A superintendent lives here, whose busi- 
ness it is to examine all public accounts against the Repub- 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



115 



Tic, and report thereon to the Secretary of the Treasury at 
Monrovia. His salary is $200 a year. The private build- 
ings in this town do not show as much for the business of the 
place as those in other towns that I have been in on the coast. 
There are two houses being furnished that will be an orna- 
ment to the town in comparison to its present dwellings. 
The houses may be estimated from $45 to $1,500. I think 
the business of the place vi^ill not justify at present at least 
very expensive houses; for a wise man will build at a price 
he may get back when he sells it, baring vv^ear and tear. I 
saw cattle, goats, sheep and swine feeding on ground lying 
out to the commons. 1 also saw a mare belonging to the 
Rev. Mr. Holfman, an Episcopal Missionary living in this 
town. She was broke to the saddle and harness, and was 
with foal. I measured her, and found that she was five feet 
six inches high, and six feet one inch from her ears to her 
tail. She cost, second handed, $100 — was first obtained 
back of Mesurada county of the natives. This town will 
never be large, because of its confined limits, and the vi- 
cinity of Latrobe, that has as good a landing spot for the 
same class of craft as this town has, and from the narrow 
strip of country lying on each side of an avenue leading out 
into the country for four or five miles. I returned to the ship, 
saying to myself, how different does Harper appear when on 
its street, from what it did this morning at sea. Thermom- 
eter at 7 P. M. in the cabin, 78°. 

January 14. Thermometer on the deck of the ship at 6 A. 
M. 72°. I went on shore to go back into the country. The 
land back from Harper may be described as slightly rolling 
land, with different swales in breadth, having Shepherd's 
Lake on the south and low grounds on the north; the hills 
varying in height, as Jackson's hill, Mt. Vaughn, and Tubman 
hill. The two latter hills are about the heigth of Cape Pal- 
mas hill. In leaving Harper, there is a slight descent, to 
ascend a similar hill in heighth. but more rounding, and with 
a broader surface on its top, and a greater smoothness dowr> 
its sides. Here did stand a native town of the Cape Palmaa 
ti'ibe, that covered the top of the hill with its thatched houses. 
Now it is truly a barren hill top, with its natural poor soil, 
burnt to entire barrenness. Passing down this hill toward 
Latrobe, there is a slight descent to the small rise of land on 
which Latrobe stands. On this ascent, adjoining Latrobe, 
another native town stood. The tribe owned the land on 
which their town stood. They have always positively refused 
to sell out, or give the land to the Liberians. It was unfor- 
tunate that the native towns lay between Latrobe and Har- 
per; for all passing from one town to the other was through 



116 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



these towns, by day and by night. The consequence was, 
the Liberians had the same feelings that Ahab had to pos- 
sess Naboth's vineyard. A war was brought about, and the 
native towns were burnt down in 1856. The natives fled, and 
the Liberians took possession of the ground. It was dearly 
paid for in the expenses of the war, in deprivations, in losses of 
property, and lives. This war will stand as proof to future 
generations, that the Liberians, at least up to 1856-7, had 
not been assiduously pursuing a systematic course of moral, 
civil and kind means to bring the two branches of the house- 
hold together in due time, as one social political and chris- 
tian body, on one common soil. On the hill is mounted three 
cannon, with their muzzles pointing to the new towns the 
natives have built across the river, within the full range of 
their ball. In the swale of land between this hill and La- 
trobe, there is a fine spot for salt works by evaporation. The 
sea water on the south side can be pumped out of the At- 
lantic by a wind mill or by steam power, and salt be made 
to any quantity. The land taken from the natives in this 
swale, and on the ascent to Latrobe, has been surveyed off 
in town lots of one-eighth of an acre, and put into market. 
At the first public sale, lots sold for $16 to $60 a piece. The 
minimum price is $15 a lot. The business done in Harper 
or Latrobe, nor the difficulty in getting land for dwelling 
houses in either place, nor the wealth of the people, do not 
justify such prices for lots. It is to be greatly regreted that 
the call of the natives for peace was unheeded. And it is 
still more a subject of regret that this tribe had evidence in 
their sight that the Liberians had incited a neighboring un- 
friendly tribe to come out against them, thus keeping up a 
native war, or an unfriendly feeling among the different 
tribes. Latrobe is built chiefly on the Maryland avenue that 
runs through the town. There are two back streets and a 
few cross streets. Two hundred and fifty- six tov/n lots, of 
an eighth of an acre, have been laid out. I counted fifty 
dwelling houses in the town. There are two stores, a 
blacksmith, and several carpenters and masons. The Metho- 
dist and Episcopal churches are fine stone buildings, with a 
school house of stone adjoining. The Methodist school is 
for girls. The Baptist church was burnt down during the 
war. The dwelling houses of Latrobe have nothing very 
attractive in their appearance. The water in this town is 
from wells. It is soft and good. The shipping on the coast 
generally get water here from two wells, paying 20 to 25 
cents per hogshead at the wells. Our naval vessels, when 
they get the water, pay half a cent per gallon, because at 
other ports they pay that price. I allude to this to show the 
estimation that foreigners put upon the water. The soil of 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



117 



Latrobe, like that of Harper, is clay. What was growing on 
their town lots showed b}^ its size and growth, that the land 
needed rest or manure. In Latrobe the Receptacle building, 
one story high, was divided off into fourteen rooms. It was 
built in days gone by, and needs repairing; and then it 
might be a question for discussion whether it would not be 
best to put up a new building. There is a Doctor's office 
hard b}^ the Receptacle. The physician who lives here is a 
much respected doctor, both by seafaring men who stop here 
for medical aid, as well as by the citizens of this county. All 
the rooms but two in the Receptacle are occupied by colo- 
nists who have been burnt out of house and home in the last 
war. I saw cattle, sheep, goats and swine in the streets. 
Latrobe has a landing place on the Palmas river, which its 
inhabitants, and those in the interior, find convenient in re- 
ceiving their lumber and other articles of merchandise. I 
saw a fine yoke of cattle drawing, on the fore wheels of a 
cart, lumber intended for the erection of a mission house and 
boarding school of the Episcopal Mission on Mt. Vaughn, in 
the place of the buildings destroyed by fire in the late war. 
The price of a load is 75 cents. The distance to the Mount 
is three miles. I understood from the owners that there were 
three other yoke of cattle in the county, and four bullocks 
that had been broke to the harness to work singly to a horse 
cart. The price of a yoke of cattle was $30 to $35. On 
leaving Latrobe, the farming country commences. The land 
had been laid out in five acre lots, the number of acres al- 
lowed to a family by the laws of the colony when under the 
control of the Maryland Colonization Society. The county 
surveyor, in laying before me the surveys of the town and 
farm lots, informed me that one-fourth, at least, of the five 
acre lots had been lessened in size by the sale of one to three 
acres by the owners to other colonists. One thousand nine 
hundred and eighty-five acres had been laid off* in the coun- 
ty. The farm lots had been laid off" as they had been called 
for by emigrants. By reason of the recent connection of this 
colony to Liberia proper, the farm lands will hereafter be di- 
vided off" to new emigrants according to the laws of Liberia. 
Already ten ten-acre lots have been laid off* for new set- 
tlers. Shepherd's lake commences on the south of Latrobe, 
and runs easterly eight miles, with an average breadth of 
one-fourth of a mile. The water at Latrobe, in the lake, is 
brackish. In the time of the rains, it rises so high as to force its 
way through the sand that blocks up its entrance into the At- 
lantic ocean during the dry season. But during the follow- 
ing dry season, its passage way is again stopped up by sand 
by the beating of the surf of the sea. It is on this lake the 



V 



118 LIBERIA, JIS I FOUND IT. 

Liberians of this county suffered their greatest loss of men 
in the recent war with the Pahnas tribe. A number of the 
citizens were in a canoe on this lake, with, a small mounted 
cannon, in order to fire on the natives concealed on the land, 
^hen the cannon was fired, it rebounded and split the ca- 
noe. It filled with water, and twenty-six men were drowned. 
Except this loss, not a Liberian was killed in the w^ar: nur is 
there uncontradicted testimony that a native was killed in 
the war. In my route, I saw that much destruction had been 
done to a row of fine palm trees on the side of the avenue. 
It was judged best to cut many of the trees down in the time 
of the war, as many natives would conceal themselves be- 
hind them, and fire on the colonists. The possibility that they 
might be killed by such marksmen^ led to the order to cut them 
down. In my walk I saw the plantain, the tamerind tree, 
the cocoa-nut tree, the mango plum tree, and the physic tree. 
A physic tree that I measured was eighteen inches in cir- 
cumference. It was eight to ten inches high. Its fruit is of 
the size of a lime, and is boiled and used by some as a sub- 
stitute for calomel. The objection that was made here to 
use it as a fence, was that so many sprouts put out from the 
spreading roots that it was too troublesome to keep them 
down. The land widens in breadth as you proceed east, 
embracing wet ground, that has to be ditched to have a dry 
road through it — then land that is very sandy — then land that 
is clay, and then land that is a black loam, with gravel some 
eighteen to twenty inches deep. I saw on what is called the 
Government farm, of about thirty acres, where a half acre 
of American corn had been raised. The whole work had 
been done with the hoe. I found a few ears on the stalks. 
It was like, in size and kind, to that I had found on the St. 
Paul's river. Of course the yield would not test what quan- 
tity could have been raised on this half acre of ground, pro- 
perly manured and cultivated. The owner of the corn told 
me he had sold roasting ears for 25 cents per dozen, and 
when harvested, a bushel for 75 cents. 

I dined with the Rev. C. C. Hoffman, a white man, and a 
missionary of the Episcopal Missions to Africa. He resided 
at the female orphan school, and was its superintendent. 
The scholars in the school had been taught by colored teach- 
ers. But during the last six weeks tw^o w^hite females had 
arrived from New York, sent by the Board of Missions, to teach 
in the school. The school has twenty-seven scholars from 
eight to sixteen years of age. They are children of deceased 
colonists or of poor widows. They are taught to sew two 
afternoons in each week, and to do most of the housework; 
but not to intefere with their study hours. They are taught 



LIEEEIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



119 



the usual branches of common school education. I passed 
through the different departments of the house, and was much 
gratified with the order, and cleanliness and economical ar- 
rangements of each. There was much evidence in the im- 
provements to save labor about the house, that Northern 
people in our land generally show in their dwellings. Chil- 
dren who can pay for all the benefits of the school and board, 
are charged $75 a year. The children looked healthy. Mr. 
Hoffman preaches in Latrobe on Sabbath morning, and at 
some native town, through an interpreter, in the afternoon. 
Our dinner was palm butter, (having chicken cut up in it) 
and roast chicken, with the usual vegetables. After dinner 
we w^ent to visit the arrangements of the Episcopal Mission- 
ary Society for the natives of the Cape Palmas tribe. There 
are four towns within the half circle of two miles. In the 
four towns may be 3,000 souls. King Yellow Will lives in 
one of the towns. The other towns had head-men living in 
them. We found the King seated on a stool, with four or 
five youths, from 15 to 20 years of age, playing one of their 
games of putting small stones, like unto marbles as to size 
and shape, in different holes. He was much afflicted with 
leprosy. He was a large, stout framed man; spoke English 
well, and was clothed as his fathers clothed themselves. He 
had a number of wives, as many men in his tribe likewise 
had. Very few of the people had on clothing. Here and 
there a man had a sheet, like as to size and form, wrapped 
around his person. They have a large range of land for 
somemiles around their towns. All of it is uninclosed. The 
land is level. Some of it, in the dry season, needs ditching 
to cultivate it. Other parts of it is dry; while a great body 
of it is too wet for cultivation in the wet season. Their towns 
are built on a rise of land some ten or fifteen feet above the 
surrounding land, which furnishes them with a dry spot to 
live on. The women were getting the rice cleaned for the 
supper of the men, when they returned from the fields they 
were preparing to sow rice in. Their fields are sowed for 
each town in commons. Rice was selling at this time at $1 
per bushel. I saw brass kettles, and different kinds of iron ves- 
sels, in use among the people. Several of these people pro- 
fessed Christianity. A large church was being put up for 
their accommodation, between two of the towns. And not far 
from it is the school-house for their children. There are 27 
native male children in the school. They are taught the 
common branches of education in English. They spelt and 
read well. In questioning them as to who made them? 
Where is God? When does God see you? What does God 
know? and the like questions, their anwers were prompt and 



120 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



correct. They repeated the Lord's prayer correctly, and sung 
a hymn in their native language, carrying two parts. I most 
heartily commend them to the blessing of God, for their own 
blessedness of Him, and their usefulness to their fathers. I 
returned to the ship. Thermometer at 7 P. M. 80°. 

January 15. Thermometer at 7 A. M. 76°. There is a 
most sensible change in the weather. I went on shore to 
make further examinations of the interior settlements. Pass- 
ing Latrobe, and the flat land beyond it, we came to a small 
rise of ground where the courthouse and jail, and two indif- 
ferent buildings, were erected. It certainly was a retired 
place to administer justice in. From the 1st of May, 1857, 
to January 1st, 1858, there have been trials of two cases of 
petit larceny, two for assault and battery, and one case for 
swindling. All were colonists. Jacksonville is a settlement 
of twenty-six dwellings. They were farmers chiefly. They 
had wet and dry land around their town. Three-fourths of a 
mile to the right, toward the sea, there was another settle- 
ment, called Beach Street, or Holmes' Road. Those people 
were on farming land. During the war, twenty-one of their 
houses were burnt to the ground. Mt. Vaughn stands off to 
the left of Jacksonville some half a mile. On its summit the 
buildings of the Episcopal Mission are now building, and will 
look well to the passer-by. The lumber for the buildings was 
sent from the city of New York. The calculations for schol- 
ars are for a dense population in this region before the build- 
ings shall decay. I hope it will not be said of this adven- 
ture, "Ye have sown much, but have reaped little." If the 
plan is to bring native children from the towns, and keep 
them from their parents until educated, it is a policy, in my 
judgment, that had better be postponed until it is found that 
a mission station established "hard by" their towns, to 
bring males and females, parents and children, together in 
the house of God; and the children, male and female, into 
day schools, is a sure failure in directly operating upon them 
for their instruction and elevation. Still farther on is Tub- 
man town and Tubman hill. This hill took its name from the 
gentleman who died in Georgia some 21 years ago, di- 
recting by his will that eighty of his slaves should be sent to 
Liberia. They settled here, and called their settlement after 
his name. A few of their houses were burnt in the last war. 
This is the family that is spoken of in different parts of Ken- 
tucky as having been in a starving condition, and as they had 
ceased to write asking for food, it was judged they must all 
of them now be dead. They met me at two of their dwell- 
ings, at my request sent to them yesterday for that purpose. 
They have twenty-nine dwellings. They are four and a half 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



121 



miles from Harper. I took down the names of the living, 
and of their children, in my memorandum book. The origi- 
nal stock living here, with their posterity, numbered sixty 
souls. Five of the eighty who came from Georgia were from 
50 to 75 years old when they landed here in 1837. One died 
on the voyage, two died in the acclimation, and since their 
residence here, twenty-two over twenty-one years of age 
have died. They were well fitted out when they left Geor- 
gia, and have at various times been furnished by Mrs. Tub- 
man with money and provisions. And my opinion is, she 
gave to them too much at a time for the benefit of their in- 
dustry. They spoke very highly of their old mistress, as they 
styled her, and expressed desires to see her again. They 
were contented, were well clad, and were much respected by 
their neighbors. One of their number taught a native school, 
near to a native town, of eighteen scholars, under the care 
of the Methodist Mission. In this settlement I found one 
farm had 2,000 coffee trees; another 500; while some persons 
had planted out but four or five trees. A half mile from 
Tubman town, was New Georgia, a new settlement that had 
been commenced some three years ago, under the ten acre 
law. In the war, all their houses were burnt down. But 
the smake I saw rising from their lands, while I was standing 
on Tubman hill, showed that they were preparing to re-settle 
their land. 

Here I closed my walk. I have brought before the reader 
all the settlements in the Maryland county. Their condition 
I have aimed to describe with all honesty of mind. It can- 
not be doubted that the war has not only been a wrong war, 
but that it has made sad changes in the appearance of the 
country, as to a full show of its productions; while it has 
brought great losses on many settlers, and driven them off of 
their lands to live as they could. Many of them had nothing 
laid up to meet such trials as they were now daily passing 
through. But the hand of friendship and charity was opened 
by those who had wherewithal to help them. The churches 
give their communion collections for the benefit of their 
needy; while private aid, in various forms, was rendered to 
those most in need. Lumber was high, $5 per hundred. 
Lumber from the United States sold for ^40 per 1,000 feet; 
but it was not always to be had. There is no saw mill in 
the county. Six whip-saws find a demand for all the lumber 
they can cut, and would sell their lumber lower, but they 
have to take their pay mosth^ in barter. Iron sells for 7 to 8 
cents per lb. Mechanics charge from $2 to $2 50 per day. 
The two blacksmiths find employment in working on gun 
locks, hoes, bill hooks, chains, ironing carts, &c. &c. Char 



122 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



coal is used in the shops. No plow is used in the county; 
nor is there a farm lot inclosed. Cord wood sold in Latrobe 
and Harper at $2 50 to $3 00 per cord. I was astonished 
to see in Harper, native women bringing up cord wood on 
their heads, from the landing on the river bank, to private 
dwellings, at 25 cents per da}^ while colonists felt above such 
work, and were suffering from pecuniary embarrassments. I 
discovered in my rambles, that in every eighty rods that I 
passed, a road thirty feet wide was laid out. Most of them 
were but foot paths. The water was soft and good. The 
temperature I found was 76°. I visited a school, and was 
permitted by the teacher to examine several classes. I was 
much gratified at their progress in geography, grammar, and 
the common rules of arithmetic. The little ones, in their 
abs and ibs, were not forgotten. I saw by their progress that 
there is much difference in learning this class of children in 
a school room, than when taken irregularly from their play, as 
in Kentucky, to learn in the house, by some child who is anxious 
to learn them to read. These settlements are on a tract of land 
that will average three and a half miles wide. Of this body 
of land, one-fourth may be set down as too wet for cultiva- 
tion; one-fourth of the rest is too wet to be cultivated in the wet 
season, and the balance, as a body, is good land, with the 
variety of flat and rolling surface. In some of it, sand most- 
ly prevails; in others, a rich black mould, and on the rise of 
ground it is clay. But the cultivation of the lands do not 
evince great industry in the people. Comparatively but lit- 
tle coffee, ginger, arrow root, and the like, are raised. Cas- 
sada and sweet potatoes are raised on every lot in cultiva- 
tion. In conversation with six different well informed citi- 
zens, "separate and apart," I came to the conclusion, from 
their statements, that if the property of the citizens of the 
county were assessed, after excepting twelve persons, the 
property of the rest would not exceed $140 each. In Harper, 
one person was estimated at $10,000; five others in the coun- 
ty, at from $800 to $1,200. I went into a house for water, 
and had a most pressing invitation to stop and dine at a table, 
that had on it roast mutton, chicken, and cassada and sweet 
potatoes; but as 1 had made an engagement for 3 o'clock, to 
dine, I declined the invitation. There were, before the war, 
one hundred and sixty head of cattle; now there are not more 
than fifty. Before the war, there were one hundred and fifty 
head of hogs; now not more than seventy. One man who 
came to this county with only two dollars in his pocket, (he 
is a carpenter, and owns land) had before the war twenty 
head of cattle; now he has but ten. He owned thirty hogs; 
now he has twenty. But two of the natives have become 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



123 



citizens of the county, and neither of them hold an ofRce. 
Under the former constitution of this people, their laws would 
not allow the sale of ardent spirits in its territory. But under its 
present laws, liquor can be sold by any person who wiH take 
out license to sell it. One man sells it in Harper, who, like 
other sellers of ardent spirits, thinks it causes a great waste of 
money, and health and happiness; but will sell it as long as 
buyers can be found. There is a law in Liberia that is not 
enforced. It is this: when any man takes out a license to 
sell ardent spirits, he is required to put up a sign, viz: "A. 
B. sells rum." This sounds plainer than grocery, "restau- 
rant," or saloon." The currenc}^ of this county, when it was 
the Maryland Commonwealth, was in paper of $1,50 cents, 
25 cents, 10 cents, and 5 cents, redeemable at the Treasurer's 
office in Harper. Fourteen hundred dollars of this currency 
was in circulation. It has all been redeemed except $300, which 
the people desire the Legislature of Liberia to redeem. The 
Liberian currency is now the currency of this county. I re- 
turned to the ship much fatigued. Thermometer at 7 P. M., 
in the cabin, 81°. 

January 16. Thermometer at 7 A. M. 80. This being 
Saturday, I found many persons had come in from the coun- 
try to Harper. How strong are the impressions of observa- 
tion. This people, when in the United States, had seen, 
that on Saturday, the whites go to the county seat to 
see and hear the news. It is a gathering next to a county 
court's monthly gathering. And as this was to be the last 
day's stay of the ship at this port, many came in with their 
letters to be sent to their American friends. The postage of 
a single letter by the ship, to any part of the United States, 
is five cents. They all came in on foot — not one of them rode 
into town, nor left their horses outside of it. I was three 
hours in the Superintendent's office, where many of the citi- 
zens were coming and going to do business, which required 
a free use of the pen, quickness at figures, and promptness 
without hurry, to decide upon the correctness of accounts, 
and the legality of charges. I was pleased with the readi- 
ness of doing the business of the office. In the post office I 
found suitable postal arrangements for the present state of 
the Republic. There is a Post Master General who has the 
oversight of the whole postal arrangements in the Republic. 
There are post offices at Cape Mount, Monrovia, Buchanan, 
Greenville, and Harper. The collectors in the custom houses 
are post masters. The mail bag for each port, is delivered 
by the vessel bringing it, to the collector, who assorts the let- 
ters and papers. Those for other counties are put up and 
sealed, and sent to their destination by the first conveyance. 



124 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



The letters for persons living out of the Republic are for- 
warded as soon as practicable, without postage. All letters 
remaining in the office for persons living in the county, which 
have not been called for within three days, are to be publish- 
ed in the tovi^n, in some public place, they are directed to. 
All letters of half ounce, and under, pay a postage of three 
cents — letters over a half ounce, or part of an ounce, pay 
one cent additional postage. When single letters are sent 
b}^ express, to a point in Liberia, the postage is twelve and a 
half cents — doable letters twenty-five cents. AH letters 
mailed out of the limits of the Republic, are mailed free of 
postage. If letters remain in the post office for thirty days, 
uncalled for, a list of such is published in the different post 
offices in the Republic, and the post masters in those coun- 
ties are to have the list advertised in the different towns in 
the county. For such an advertisement, a two-fold postage 
on the letter is required, when called for. If in ninety days, 
the letters are not called for, they are considered as dead 
letters, and are sent to the Post Master General, who opens 
them, and if he finds any money or valuable article in the 
letter, it is made his duty to issue notice of the same in each 
county and township, setting forth the name of the writer, 
and every particular necessary, and to whom the letter is di- 
rected; and the claimant must establish his claim before a 
justice of the peace, and pay ten per cent, on the value of 
the contents of the letter. If no claimant is found, then the 
contents belong to the Government. Postage on letters to 
the United States by steamers, by the way of Liverpool, is 
thirty-three cents. They come in forty to forty-five days. I 
obtained from the physician's books the following statistics. 
(I would state that the years are taken without any previous 
knoweldge of their purport.) In the expedition of 1855, 
thirty emigrants were landed here. Two of the number 
died by the fever. Up to January 17. 1858, one other of the 
party had died. In another expedition of 1855, seven emi- 
grants were landed here. One died by the fever — the rest 
are now living. In the third expedition of 1855, fifty-nine 
emigrants were landed here. Five died by the fever, and 
four died by other diseases, up to January 17, 1858. In 1856, 
thirty-four emigrants were landed here. Five died by the 
fever, and two by other diseases, up to January 17, 1858. In 

1857, fifteen emigrants were landed here. Two died by fe- 
ver — none of the remainder had died up to January 17, 

1858. The book was opened for 1851. Twenty-one emi- 
grants were landed here. Four died b}^ the fever, and one 
of the others died before January 17, 1858 — the day of this 
examination. "The physician thinks the May expedition, 
or soon thereafter, from the United States, is upon the whole, 



LIBhlRrA, AS I FOUND IT. 



125 



the best time emigrants should come to Cape Palmas to set- 
tle. In consequence of the rains, the air is cooler, and the 
emigrants are liable to take the fever at once, and with less 
severity, than when taking it in warm weather, and they are 
thenless prostrated than when suffering under the feverin the 
heat of summer. Children between twelve and fifteen are 
more liable to die in acclimating than children under those 
years, for younger children being more or less affected 
by worms, the medicines given to them for their removal, 
prepare the system to pass the acclimation more fa.vorably." 
There is no perceptible difference between blacks and mu- 
lattoes in acclimating. I found, by referring to the clerk's 
books of the births and deaths in the county, that since 1854 
to January 17, 1858. there have been one one hundred and 
two deaths in the county. Twenty-six were lost in the war 
of 1856-7, by drowning in the lake Shepherd, which m-akes 
s.eventy-six deaths by fever and other diseases and casual- 
ties. During the same period there were eighty-nine births, 
making thirteen more births over the deaths by fever and 
ordinary causes. The emigrants sent to this county have 
chiefly gone from the state of Maryland. The whole number 
landed here up to this'^time, is rising thirteen hundred. I did 
not get a more definite number from the colonization ofiice in 
Baltimore. An epidemic, a few years ago, having a typhoid 
form, carried of a good many people. The people appeared 
to me, except some cases of ulcers, to be healthy, and so did 
the children. It is true, there are small strips of mangrove 
swamps on the margin of the banks of Cape Palmas river, 
but the sea breeze has such a sweep over the land, by reason 
of its formation, that I do not consider the country unhealthy. 
From the collectors books, I obtained the following informa- 
tion. 

The exports of 1855, were — ■ 
Cash, $870 34; 
Camwood, 32 tons; 
Palm oil, 77,250 gallons; 
Drafts or bills, $4,143 06; 
Rice, 4 kroos; 

1856— In cash, $535 86; 
Camwood, 8 tons; 
Palm oil, 19,755 gallons; 
Drafts or bills, S2,000; 
Rice, 1,195 kroos; 

1857— In cash, $639 53; 
Camwood, 5 tons; 
Palm oil, 8,075 gallons; 
Drafts or bills, $706 20; 
Rice, 2,000 kroos. 



126 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



The drafts or bills were drawn on Missionary Societies in 
the United States. The cash was gold and silver remitted 
by traders. The camwood and oil goes to England, France, 
Hamburg, and the United States. 

The imports during the year 1856, were, - $23,717 90 
The imports during the year 1857, were, - 19,015 72 

I entered a magistrate's court to see "that justice was done 
to the parties." The "squire" was seated in his chair, with 
his pen, taking notes, and two attorneys, with the laws of Li- 
beria, and the bill of rights, and miscellaneous provisions, 
laid down in the fifth article of the Constitution of the Re- 
public in their hands, having a leal turned dov^m to some 
statute that each, no doubt, thought would clear his client 
before the court. Every thing was going on in order, more so 
than the parties had been acting; for it was a case of scandal 
growing out of the free use of the tongues of two females. 

In making inquiries of the people in regard to their con- 
t-entedness of mind in living here, they had no fault to find 
with the country. They complained of the hard times, and 
the scarcity of money. I found two persons who would go 
back to the United States if they had money to do so. This 
did not appear strange to me, though I thought if they would 
use all diligence with their hands and strength, they would 
find a home here far better than they could, even in the state 
they came trom. I would distinctly state that the suffering 
here was mostly from the effects of the war. The burning of 
houses, the killing of stock, the absence from their lands ly- 
ing partially waste, and raising nothing to export, must ne- 
cessarily, at least, straighten them in their temporal circum- 
stances. No census of this county has been taken. But 
from my inquiries in each settlement, of the number of fam- 
ilies in them, and of what would be the estimate of the per- 
sons in the different settlements, I think nine hundred and fifty 
inhabitants would not vary fifty either way. The legal voters 
may be putdown atone hundred and forty, butone hundred and 
twenty-five is the highest vote that has been given. The 
number enrolled in the militia during the war, was two hun- 
dred, but then the loss, by the drowning of twenty-six men, 
reduced their number to one hundred and seventy-four. All 
are supplied with guns, having received from Liberia Proper, 
forty guns, and fifty from the Maryland Colonization Soci- 
ety. There are in the county, fourteen cannon, from three 
to nine pounders, with six barrels of powder, one thousand 
balls, and a good supply of grape shot. The natives mingle 
veiy much with the Liberians as to passing to and fro, and 
doing work for the Liberians when they can get it. It is es- 
timated that there are twenty- five to thirty thousand natives 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



127 



in the county. The}^ are convinced, I think, that the Libe- 
rians in the Republic can bring a force against them that 
can subdue them. And that the Liberians can have the as- 
sistance of vessels to take men from one point of attack to 
another point, strengthens this connection. In this last 
war, the natives had two four pound cannons in use. They 
were taken by the Liberians. The natives took possession 
of the six pounder that sunk in the lake. After the war, the 
natives returned to the Liberians the six pounder, and the 
Liberians restored to the natives their two four pounders. 
The natives use their cannon for anvils in their iron work. 
The Liberians had in this war, the assistance of two tribes. 
The Cape Palmas tribe can bring into the field, such fighting 
men as they are, five hundred to five hundred and filty 
men. 

There were landed at Harper the remaining emigrants 
who came in the ship from the United States, four adults, 
and four children, under twelve years of age. For their six 
months support were landed, ten barrels of beef, five bar- 
rels of pork, ten barrels of flour, half barrel of sugar, one 
barrel of syrup, one bag of coffee, one box of mustard, and 
one box of soap, two bundles of sundries. 

It is but right for me to say, that the people of this count}^, 
taken as a body, do not show, making all due allowance for 
the effects of the war, that advance in property and agi'icul- 
ture that it is desirable to see in a community. The foster- 
ing care of the Maryland Society, I think, has not called out 
the energy and industry of the people. This is seen in the 
size of their farms, in their dwellings, and in their agricul- 
tural productions. They have not had to depend on their" 
own labor as much as those sent by the American Coloniza- 
tion Societ}'. The Amei'ican Society gives the six months 
support, and the land in quantity, according to the age and 
sex, and family of the emigrant. The Maryland Society gave 
the six months support, built a house, with the expectation 
that the emigrant would build a similar house for a future 
emigrant to live in., furnished him with hoe, axe, &c.; fed 
him when he stood in need, and furnished the colony with a 
currency of $1,400, which the society has redeemed, except 
$300. There are five white persons living in this county 
who belong to the Episcopal Mission. I returned at night 
to the ship. Not having tiine to go down to Cavalla, filteen 
miles from Cape Palmas, and do what 1 wish to accomplish 
to-day, I declined going there with two friends, passengers 
in the ship, who left the ship in a row-boat, early this morn- 
ing to see it. On their return they gave to me an account of 
their visit, from which 1 gather this inibrmation. We passed 



128 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



a half town of natives living on the coast, called Half Gra- 
way. A little lower down there was another town of the 
same tribe where the Episcopal church had a missionary 
school taught by a native. Byshop Payne, a white man, of 
the Episcopal church, resides at Cavalla. He was absent 
from home. He owns a horse that came from the same 
country the mare came from. In going from the sea beach 
to his house, you pass through a native town of the Bewader 
tribe, in which town are probably two hundred and fifty in- 
habitants. The town was built in a circular form. There 
are several native towns in this neighborhood, with two hun- 
dred to one thousand souls. The chi^f man in the town, of 
one thousand souls, has professed the christian religion. An 
Episcopal church has been built near to the Bishop's house. 
A school of thirty native girls is kept here. Twenty families 
have professed Christianity, and most of them go full dressed 
about their ordinary business of life. They live in a separate 
town. Many of the houses are made of brick dried in the 
sun, while other buildings were framed. They had patches 
of land adjoining their houses on which were raised the 
usual productions of the country. Their lots were inclosed 
with upright stakes. The women attended to the domestic 
affairs of the house, while the men were off on their farms 
at work — this being the season to prepare for the rice crop. 
The native towns are inclosed with split slats six feet high, 
with gates to go in and out. Every thing around showed 
the Episcopal Mission was doing a good work for the civili- 
zation of the pai'ents, and the teaching of their children the 
necessary knowledge of letters. Worship was held regu- 
larly among those natives. Five miles below the Bishop's 
house, is the Cavalla river. Within these five miles, there 
are several native towns. The bar of the river was so bad 
that they did not venture to cross it. In the rainy season 
there are times when it is impassable for boats. The river 
above the bar is navigable for many miles up in the interior. 
Just below the bar of the river is a native town, in which a 
school is taught by a. native teacher, under the care of the 
Episcopal Mission. The natives here are called the Grabo 
people, and they assisted the Cape Palmas Liberians in the 
late war against King Yellow Will's tribe. The thermome- 
ter at 7 P. M. on shipboard, was 82°. 

January 17. Thermometer at 7 A. M. 82o. The ship, 
weighed anchor early this morning to return back to Cape 
Mount, touching at all the points we stopped at, when we 
came down the coast. Back from the native town, Fishtown, 
seven miles from Cape Palmas, there are hills marked down 
on the coast chart, two hundred and ninety feet high. Fif- 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



129 



teen miles from Cape Palmas, near to the mouth of Garra- 
way river, stood the noted cotton tree on this coast, by meas- 
urement, two hundred feet high. Twenty miles back, the 
coast chart places several mounts, one of which is ten hun- 
dred and ninety feet high. We gained to-day some fifteen 
miles on our way. Thermometer at 7 P. M , was 81°. 

January 18. Thermometer at 7 A. M. 82°. The wind was 
still light. At 4 P. M., we came to anchor off 

GREENVILLE. 

It being too late to go on shore, our visit was deferred un- 
til to-morrow morning. 

January 19. Thermometer at 7 A. M. 82°. I went on shore 
to finish my observations of this town, and the county of 
Sinoe. There are three Receptacles in this town. Each 
building is 26x14 feet, having two rooms below and two 
rooms above, in each house. They were put up by the Amer- 
ican Colonization Society. They were placed on the north- 
east side of the town, on the north west bank of the Sinoe river. 
The ground on which they stand is good, dry and pleasant. 
But on the opposite side of this ground, across the river, is a 
mangrove swamp, some twenty feet deep to the eye, which 
continues up the river for three miles. A similar range of 
swamps is on the side of the river on which the Receptacles 
stand; w^hile near to the Receptacle, there is a marsh that 
runs into the town, overflowed by the tides. A physician is 
located here by the American Society, whose salary is $800 
a year. The practice he has in the place is independent of 
his salary. He was not in favor of the location of the Re- 
ceptacles on this ground. He has been living here two years, 
but has had no case of acclimating fever to treat, as no emi- 
grants have been sent here since he settled here. There are 
two churches here, Methodist and Baptist. The Presbyterian 
and Episcopal denominations are each having a church built. 
All of the denominations have preaching every Sabbath, and 
also day and Sabbath schools. 1 visited two of the schools. 
The Episcopal school is kept by the Episcopal minister, a 
colored man. He has a class of two "boys in Latin and Greek, 
and classes of boys and girls in Algebra and Geometry. And 
I must say I was greatly gratified with the quickness, as well 
as with the correctness of their work. They were examined 
without preparation for my visit. I heard other classes in 
grammar, reading and spelling. They read well and spelt 
well, putting the syllables together as they spelt the words — 
not a common method in modern schools, and therefore it is 
not a common thing at home to find good unhesitating read- 
ers. This was a new sight to me. Here were teachers and 
9 



130 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



scholars of the black race in branches of study, who had eve- 
ry motive, in school and at home, and in the society around 
them, to teach and learn in reference to a state of society 
that one day the youth, in their manhood, would occupy. I 
could see in Louisville schools, whose teachers and scholars 
were blacks; but under what circumstances were those teach- 
ers and scholars acting? For what sphere in lile were the 
scholars learning? The teachers, and the parents of the 
children taught, could comparatively turn the Ohio river 
back to run up its falls, as they could change their position 
in society, to have the influences operating on their children's 
education that are possessed in Liheria. I left the school 
room with an exhortation to the scholars to be diligent in 
study, and the prayer to God that He would bless teacher 
and scholars to the great good of Africa. There is a steam 
saw mill going to ruin in the outer part of the town. It is 
true the lumber could be taken from the ground, by water, to 
the lower landing of the town; and it is true that the prices 
of lumber would justify the running of the mill; and it is also 
true that logs could be brought down the liver in any quanti- 
ty, to the mill; but it has been given up, it seems, to decay as 
fast as the wood frame and the iron works will permit. The 
abandonment of this mill, I do not think, is owing to inabili- 
ty among the ^people to have so much capital placed in such 
a mill. The price of lumber is from $3 to $5 per hundred, 
according to its kind and thickness. There are no oxen in 
Greenville, nor in the county. Neither are there horses or 
mules. There w^ere in Greenville and its vicinity about fifty 
head of cattle, and about as many sheep, with a few swine. 
This is certainly evidence that these kinds of stock can be 
raised here to any demand for them for work or food. And 
grass and nutricious food can be raised lor them. Coffee ia 
raised in the yards of many citizens. One man has eight 
acres of coffee trees o-ta one of the fields not divided into 
tow^n lots. Some of the trees are bearing trees. And yet 
cofiee is imported here. This is strange husbandry and 
economy. Many seem to act on the belief that more money 
can be made by trading with the natives. They buy what 
they trade with, at a great per centage, of the merchants; 
but they sell to the native at a greater advance, and then 
make a profit on what they sell, that they have taken in pay- 
ment from the native. It is a barter that taxes the indispo- 
sition of such Liberians to settle down on farm lands at a 
heavy and injurious rate. This trading propensity disquali- 
fies them for that industry in cultivating the earth that always 
meets with a good reward. This practice of trade is an ex- 
.crescence that should be removed from the Liberians who are 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



131 



not merchants, as soon as possible, by each one turning to 
some mechanical or agricultural pursuit with diligence. '-He 
becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand; but the hanci 
of the diligent maketh rich." There is in this community a 
difference in the wealth of its citizens, as is the case in com- 
munities at home. One individual is estimated at ^7,000; 
three others at $1,500 to $"2,000; five over $1,000; several 
from $200 to $500. The great body of ihe people range 
from $50 to $150; while some have nothing to show but a 
daily life that is spent with but little industry. There are 
many in Greenvilie who sought refuge within its limits in 
the time of the war of 185u. This class of persons do what 
they can to repay their friends for their assistance to them. 
In many of the houses I saw much taste, and great neatnesg 
and order. There was not much affectation of manners; but 
there was an expression of intercourse in life that must arise 
from their residence in a society that knows of no distinction 
but what prosperity in life and propriety of conduct makes. 
There are in Greenville twelve carpenters, several masons, 
one blacksmith, two shoemakers, three tailors, two cabinet- 
makers, and one clock mender. Water can be obtained by 
digging from ten to fifteen feet. It is soft water, and very 
good to those who daily drink it. There is sand-stone on 
the shores of the river. The natives are the carriers of all 
articles from the landing, and of wood from the woods, to 
the dwellings. As almost every man is a trader in Liberia, 
in tobacco or cloth with the natives, he gets his work done at 
a nominal value. Sometifnes I have found myself often dis- 
cussing with m3'seir, w^hether the Liberians would not be 
benefitted in their industrious habits if all the natives would 
keep away from their settlements; and I invariably would 
come to the conclusion it would be an excellent movement. 
The present population of Greenville is five hundred and 
ninty-five. This includes those who have their temporary 
residence in the town, having had their houses burnt down 
during the late war. I dined with a merchant from Chailes- 
ton, S. C, on roast beef, l^oiled chicken, and bacon, with the 
usual vegetables for dinner, and a good vai'iety of fruits from 
his lot. in going into his garden, I found, beside other fruits 
that 1 have mentioned, the ocra tree and the bread-fruit tree. 
The ocra grows tall, and bears a fruit that is boiled when 
ripe, and forms a thick and pleasant food, that is very nour- 
ishing. The bread fruit is as large, sometimes, as a child's 
head, marked on its surface with irregular six-sided depres- 
sions. It contains a white fibrous pulp. When ripe, it is 
juicy. The inside, when boiled, tastes like an Irish potatoe; 
if roasted, it tastes like a roasted chesnut. The British gov- 



132 



LIBERIA^ AS I FOUND IT. 



errmient ordered, in 1791, some of these fruit trees to be 
brought from the Society Islands, and planted in the West 
India Islands. Three hundred and fifty-two were put out in 
Jamaica and other islands. (Encyp.) In three years the tree 
will bear. There is but little attention paid to its raising in 
Liberia. The mango plum is cultivated here, as in other 
parts of Liberia. It is a native of India. It was introduced 
into Jamaica in 17 82. {Encyp.) It grows on a tree the size of 
a very large apple tree. Its yield is abundant. The fruit is 
the size of a goose egg, and greenish in color, when ripe. 
The stone is two inches long and one inch wide, and flat, 
with a comparatively slight swell in the centre. The taste 
of the ripe plum is delicious. It has a slight acid taste. In 
the scarcity, in 1856, of provisions, the mango plum was 
found very serviceable, for it is very nutricious. The chiota 
is the fruit of a vine, and grows to the size of a pear. It is 
used for food, because of its nutricious properties. It is very 
palatable. I walked out to 

FARMS VILLE. 
It is two miles west from Greenville, and is separated from 
it by a swamp, over which is a causeway of sixty yards in 
length. The farms lie between Po river, or more properly 
Po Jake, and the Sinoe river. The land is rich. In some 
parts it is a sandy mould, and in othe^»^ parts clay. The 
ground is inclined to be rolling. Many of the lots were un- 
cultivated. The stumps showed it had been heavily timbered. 
The usual little streams were flowing toward some creek. 
The elfects of the war in 1856, were seen on the different 
farms. One of the battles was fought here. All of the 
houses had been bui-nt down, except fifteen, by the natives. 
In the remaining houses, from one to three families v\rere re- 
siding. The families seeking the shelter were, many of them, 
getting their lands in a condition to live on them again. 
Eighty-five peisons were li\ing here. Some who had lived 
liere were now living in Greenville. In some of the fields 
were cassada, eddoes, sweet potatoes, plantains, bananas, 
corn, and a few hills, here and there, of cane. They had 
poultry and Muscovy ducks. (I did not see in Liberia the 
common puddle duck.) I saw the coffee tree growing here; 
but the character of the land had to speak how much of a 
population could be supported here. They had preaching on 
the Sabbath by Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian minis- 
ters; and the day and Sabbath schools had been re-opened. 
The nearest native town to Farmsville is eight miles. I next 
visited 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



133 



LOUISIANA. I 
This is a farming community. It has a creek on the sooth" 
side of it, and the Sinoe river is on its east side. The creek 
empties into the Sinoe river. Louisiana is three miles from 
Greenville, tc v.^hich it iz c^r.nectcd by water. The creek is 
entered on going two miles from Greenville. On each side 
oi the creek is a mangrove swamp. A mile and a half up 
the creek, you come to a rise of land some three feet high at 
high tide, where you land to go into the western part of the 
township. A dike has been thrown up some three hundred 
yards long, to give a dry path to the inhabited part of the 
town. The ditch made by making the dike, gives a channel 
for the water to run up, and permit the canoes to enter, and 
be out of the creek for safety. Of course when the tide is 
down, the canoes are "high and dry" for a time. Louisiana 
is a farming district. It embraces, if I may so speak, three 
tracts of land. That is, there are small streams rising from 
wet land between each settlement, with narrow strips of 
wood left standing. This swamp land, in some places one 
hundred yards wide, is made passable by small ditches 
and a bridge. If the timber was cleared off, and the streams 
were kept cleared of vegatable obstructions, as logs, branches 
and leaves, the water now used by the settlers would be 
more palatable to new comers; while the land brought into 
cultivation would give better crops, from its richness, than 
are obtained from other portions of land in the settlement. 
In general the soil is good, judging from what was growing 
on some of the land. Two of the tracts of land had more 
wet land than the third; yet all three had its due proportion. 
The first tract had one hundred and fifty acres, with seven 
houses, in which lived thirteen families; the next tract had 
about one hundred and thirty acres. Only six houses were 
standing, with ten families in them; and the third tract had 
about one hundred and fifty acres, with seven houses, accom- 
modating twelve families. Sixty lots had been drawn in 
Louisiana, and eighty-five acres had been in cultivation be- 
fore the war. A few individuals had planted out coffee trees. 
The late Dr. Brown had on his land from four to five hun- 
dred coff^ee trees. Like Farmsville, it has had its sufferings 
and losses by war, which time and industry can repair. The 
condition of the people showed that they had suffered not 
only in the loss of clothing, fleeing for their lives, in the dead 
of night, from the flames spreading over their houses, but 
from the loss of the productions of their land. Their great- 
est losses were their houses and household property. Many 
of the Ross family, from Mississippi, and of the Witherspoon 
family, from Alabama, settled here. Some of the Ross fami- 



134 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



Ij recognized me in the course of conversation with them, 
we having met in New Orleans w^hen they sailed from there 
to this land in 1849. Many of these two families had died. 
The Ross family started to this country I'rom their homes, to 
liiy own particular knowledge, most shamefully neglected in 
supplying their wants to commence life here, or in any land. 
1^ stated their case, as to their wants for cooking utensils, 
lloes, axes, &c. to the agent of the American Society, in New 
Orleans, and he, at the expense of that Society, supplied 
them. Such a wrong done to emigrants hy executors, 1 have 
not witnessed in any expedition to Liberia. I was, there- 
fore, siu'prised when I asked them, in view of their losses by 
fire and ihe depredations of the natives, if they would not 
now prefer to be on the old plantation again, to hear them 
say promptly, "No." They have Methodist and Baptist 
churches here, and one school is kept up for the three settle- 
ments. There are now living in Louisiana one hundred and 
two souls. It is a great relief to the people that they have 
game, as deer, pigeons, rice-birds, and other game, with a 
plenty of fish in the creek and river. 

The creek I have referred to in going up to Louisiana, is fol- 
lowed up some three miles above the landing place of Lou- 
isiana, and you come to 

LEXINGTON. 

As I could not go there, and had met with different persons 
who lived there, I will give the result of the information I 
obtained from them. This tract of land is good for the va- 
rious productions of the country. One hundred and sixty-two 
farm lots, of two, five and ten acres, had been drawn or 
bought. Cofi^ee trees had been put out, and some had as 
high as six hundred trees growing. They had two marshy 
pieces of land, but the narrow ridge of land between them was 
rich land. There wei'e small strips of swamp between their 
ti-acts of land. The war had left it marks among them. Fif- 
teen houses had been burnt down, leaving twenty houses 
standing, with thirty-five families living in them. Only 
eighty-seven souls were now living in the settlement. They 
had Methodist and Baptist churches, day schools and Sab- 
bath schools. I returned to the ship. The thermometer at 
7 P. M. was 8io. 

January 20. The thermometer was 82^ at 7 A. M. I went 
on shore, and by previous arrangements, took a citizen of 
Greenville with me in a boat to visit the places on the Sinoe 
river. We passed the landing place to Louisiana, on the 
river, and seven miles from Greenville we stopped at the 
landing place of 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



135 



REEDSVILLE. 
This settlement is on the west bank of the Sinoe river. It 
took its name from the Reed family of servants. Mrs. Mar- 
garet Reed, of Mississippi, liberated b}^ will her servants, to 
be sent to Liberia by her executors. In 1843, seventy-one 
of them were sent. In 1844, seventy-two more were sent. 
Two of the last number died on the passage. In all, there 
were one hundred and forty-one landed in this county. They 
were acclimated in Greenville, and the living were located 
here. Many of them died from the unhealthiness of this 
place, and many moved back to Greenville, and to the settle- 
ments in Liberia, for the same cause; while others would re- 
main because the land was rich. This people were in fami- 
lies. They had drawn about two hundred and twenty-five 
acres of land, as I judged the tract to contain. It may be 
more or less. This tract of land has a swamp as one boun- 
dary, with its running stream to a creek. The creek is another 
boundary; the Sinoe river is a third boundary, and a strip of 
wood land is the fourth boundary. In the rainy season, the 
waters of the river are so high as to back the waters of the 
creek, which causes its waters, and that of the swamp, to 
overflow the arable land. The extent of the overflow de- 
pends upon the rains that raise the creek and the river. For 
some daj's, on some parts of the tract, the water is two feet 
and more deep. Some of the land, therefore, cannot be 
planted at all, with safety to the things planted, except they 
can live at least after a five days' overflow. These over- 
flows leave a rich sediment on the land, but at a dear pay- 
ment to health. The richness of the land is the reason given 
by those who still remain here, for staying on it. But per- 
haps another reason may be, they have settled down here, 
and have not the means to abandon all their improvements 
to begin somewhere else anew. I ascertained from those of 
the family living here, that but ninty-five of this Reed fami- 
ly were living, which number includes those born in Liberia. 
There are but fifty acres of this tract held by the members 
of the Reed family. The rest of the tract is surrendered to 
the government, and is not occupied. There are but three 
houses standing here, which contain six families, numbering 
tweaty-two souls. The severest battle fought in the war, 
was fought here. Twelve houses were burnt down. Of 
course most of the families who resided here have not re- 
turned to rebuild their houses and improve their lands. The 
natives who fired this town lived but one and a half miles 
from here. O, what sufl^ering war occasions ! I do not doubt 
a very different aspect would have been seen in the condition 
of the settlers of these towns, had no war taken place; while 



136 LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 

the face of the country, as to its locality, would have been the 
same that it now appears to the visitor. The river water is 
used here for drink. Leaving this place, we came, after go- 
ing two miles up the river, on the same side of it, to 

BLUNTSVILLE. 
Here was an excellent tract of dry land. Twenty-nine 
lots of one-fourth of an acre each had been professedly laid 
off ; and some two, five, seven, and ten acre farm lots. But 
only the number of chains on the bank of the river had been 
laid out with the depth of the lot, with no bearings, and no 
reference to the bend of the river for the front line of the 
lots. And what is worse, for the establishment of lines, the 
Government has sold two hundred acres of land running up 
to this supposed boundary of lots since the war, thus giving 
to the purchaser his regular metes and boundaries, leaving 
the drawers of lots to get their quantity of land as they can. 
But the war has arranged this matter of lines, though it is 
not best to employ such a regulator to do it. The property 
being swept of buildings, the lines can now be run, giving 
broader lots on the river; in other words, resurveying and 
making new boundaries. Liberia can furnish, I believe, 
good surveyors of land, and they ought to be employed. The 
tribe that attacked the Liberians lived on the land that falls 
within the bounds of the two hundred acres of land. The 
land was sold at $2 per acre. There are but five families 
who have returned to re-settle here. Two of the families have 
rebuilt their houses. The natives, numbering two hundred 
and fifty, came upon the Liberians in the night, without 
having awakened any suspicion in the minds of the Libe- 
rians, that they had unfriendly feelings toward them, and 
fired their houses, killing their cattle, their sheep, their hogs, 
and their poultry, while the Liberians fied to other settle- 
ments for safety. The loss of property here was total. The 
Methodist Missionary Society had a church and school here. 
The buildings were burnt down, and the children were scat- 
tered with their parents. The two buildings put up since the 
war, evince an energy of purpose in the builders that will 
meet in due time with a reward from the earth by the bles- 
sings of God, who fosters, I believe, this country. The owner 
of the two hundred acres (who lives in Greenville, and was 
accompanying me in my tour,) has built two houses on his 
land. A former settler burnt out, occupies both of the 
houses, having rented thirty-five acres of the tract, which he 
has in cultivation. And in consequence of the war, some 
parents have bound some of their children to the owner of 
the land, for their better care in this their time of adversity. 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



137 



These children attend school, and work on the farm out of 
school hours. The Methodist Mission has revived the school, 
and put up a house that answ^ers for preaching, the residence 
of the teacher, and a school room. The school numbers sev- 
enteen children. The number of souls now in Blimtsville, 
is twent3^-nine. On the farm u^as cassada, (the best I had 
seen since I left the St. Paul's river,) American and native 
corn, rice, sugar cane, eddoes, beans, melons, &:c. The rice 
was sown in drills the last of October; was on an average, 
eighteen inches high, and would be ready to harvest next 
month. Its height then would be, if nothing befalls its growth, 
three and a half feet. The American corn is regarded as 
better than the native corn, for yield and food. A number 
of coffee trees had been put out on this tract. The sweet 
potatoes were abundant, and had come down to fifty cents 
per bushel in Greenville. In my rambles here I saw the 
track of a leopard. One had been killed two days since. 
The people used the river water. The natives who lived on 
this tract of land have moved two miles up the river. This 
tribe, united with other tribes on the other side of the river 
Sinoe, in this war referred to. They were burnt out by the 
Liberians. Not a vestige of their residence here was left 
but the roots they had in the ground. The tribe was named 
Sinoe after the river. The tribes engaged in the war were 
called Butaw, Blue Barre, and Sinoe. They are scattered 
in small bodies over much territory. The Sinoe tribe lived 
on the west side of the river, having their towns, more or 
less, near to the Liberian Settlements. The Blue Barre 
tribe lived on the eastern side of the river. These tribes had 
ceded to the Libarian Government the political control of 
their land. It was for some cause afterwards resisted by the 
tribe, and the Liberians were disturbed in the exercise of 
their claimed rights over it. The war came on by the insti- 
gations of this tribe. But the Liberians conquered the 
whole force of the natives. The three tribes sued for peace; 
and in the treaty, ceded in good faith, the title to their land, 
reserving the right to cultivate w^hat they needed for their 
support, and that was not to be withheld when needed by 
the Liberians for settlements. The Blue Barre tribe also 
agreed to pay to the Liberian Government, $1,000, toward 
defraying the expenses of the war on the part of Liberia. 
An interdict has been placed on the tribes by the Liberian 
Government, forbidding all persons, Liberians and foreigners, 
to trade with these tribes until they have complied with the 
engagements they have stipulated to perform; and by their 
conduct, evince repentance for what they have done to the 
Liberians. This inderdict is generally regarded by traders. 



138 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



The tribes are now peaceful. It is deserving ot notice that 
this war originated by the influence of an unprincipled Eng- 
lish trader on the Blue iiarre tribe. The grand jury of Me- 
surado county found a true bill against him for stirring up, 
and encouraging an insurrection among these tribes against 
the Liberians. In this war, five hundred Liberians met the 
men of the three tribes, estimated to be five thousand in 
number. The Liberians had sixteen killed in the war, and 
many have died from wounds and exposure How many the 
natives lost cannot be learned, for when one is killed his 
body is taken away by the natives standing by, no matter 
what advantage ground they ma}' have in the battle at the 
time. Their dead never fall into the hands of their ene- 
mies. We left this place, (the extent of the settlements of 
the Liberians up the river,) and went up to Governor Brown's 
town, a native head man, eight miles up the river from 
Bluntsville. On our way we saw monkeys jumping from 
bough to bough on the trees on the banks of the river. They 
chattered away in a language best known to themselves. 
We saw a snake some eight feet long, swimming across the 
river, making good progress to get out of our way. This is 
the third snake that I have seen in all my travels in Liberia. 
I certainh^ cannot say from this fact, that it is a land of 
snakes, nor that it is a land of wild beasts. Besides, I be- 
lieve such occupants decrease in number in all lands as civ- 
ilization brings the land under its cultivation. This tract of 
Brown's land is high, rolling, and rich. Its soil is clay, mixed 
witii sand. I should judge there were two hundred acres 
within the half circle of the stream of water. In passing 
down a gradual descent on the left hand, I saw another tract 
of similar land; and in going down a greater descent on the 
right hand, and looking over the stream, I saw a similar tract 
in its lace and soil. This would be an excellent place for a 
settlement. The natives here used the river water, though 
they used also the water of the stream. The men were at 
work preparing for the sowing of rice, as the smoke told us 
as we came up the river. There might be one hundred and 
fifty natives in this town. The women and children were 
sitting around at the doors of their thatched houses which 
are built in a circular form, near enough to make one general 
conflagration when one building was set on fire. They were 
civil to us, and gave us illustrations of the use of the tools 1 
picked up to examine. The tools were of their own make. 
They were not designed to dispatch work. The people ap- 
peared to be healthy. We were now eighteen miles from 
Greenville. It was too late to go up four miles to the falls of 
the river Sinoe, and we turned our course to Greenville. I 



LIBEaiA, AS I FOUND IT. 



139 



was on board of the ship with a good appetite, although I 
had taken a luncheon with me at 7 P. M. Thermometer 82° 
at 7 P. J\J. 

January 2\. Thermometer at 7 A. M. 82°. I spent the 
day in Greenville. From the county clerk's books, 1 obtain- 
ed the following official facts. In 1853, there were in this 
county, twenty-four births and sixteen deaths. In 1854, 
there were forty-four deaths — the births of this year were 
not reported. In 1855, there were sixty-three deaths and 
fourteen births. In 1856, there were one hundred and twen- 
ty-two deaths and twenty-four births. In 1857, there were 
fifty-eight deaths and thirty-two births. The year 1856 was 
the year of the war. I also learned officially, that the' chad 
been three hundred votes polled in the county. In the last 
election there were but one hundred and sixty-two votes 
polled, but two hundred could now be polled in the county. 
The militia numbers one hundred and ninety-five men. Sev- 
en of the natives are citizens. None of them hold any civil 
office. Several of the recaptured slaves on board of the 
ship Pons, who were landed in Liberia, have settled here 
and had intermarried, with Liberian women. I passed their 
little farms which showed that they cultivated their lands 
well, and had comfortable houses to live in. In the county 
there are seven cannon from one to six pounders. The Li- 
berian Government furnished the county with two hundred 
and fifty of the one thousand guns given to Liberia by 
France. There is always on hand a good supply of pow- 
der and ball. The cannon and ammunition are so distribu- 
ted as to give the settlements each a proper supply. The 
natives have no cannon. They have guns and ammunition, 
but their ammunition is always limited in its supply. There 
are nine whipsaws running in the county. Fire wood, when 
sold to the shipping, at the landing in Greenville, is $2 75 to 
$3 per cord. They have had no inmates in the jail for the 
two last years. There never has been stationed in this 
county a regular read physician until within the last two 
years. The late Dr. Lugenbeel once spent six months to 
attend to the acclimation of some emigrants who had ar- 
rived here. He was stationed at Monrovia. Dr. Smith, who 
is stationed at Buchanan, has been twice to Greenville to at- 
tend on the acclimation of emigrants. In 1849-50, he was 
here five months. In 1854, he was here four months. Dr. 
Brown lived and died here. He obtained his title of Dr. 
from being a clerk in an apothecary's shop in Baltimore, but 
he had not sufficient medical knowledge to practice medi- 
cine. He died in 1855. The Po river, so called, may be bet- 
ter designated as Po lake. It is like Shepherd's lake in Mary- 



140 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



land county. It is eight miles long. It runs parallel with 
the sea coast, and a part of its banks is a part of the western 
boundary of Greenville. In the heavy rains of September, 
the water bursts open its outlet that is shut up with sand in 
the dry season^ and its waters find their way into the Atlan- 
tic ocean. In the dry season it is again stopped up at its 
mouth. Sometimes the neighbors in its vicinity will open its 
passage in the dry season, and drain it of its water to take 
the fish in it. Food of a certain character is plenty, as cas- 
sada, which sold in 1856, the year of the war, for $1 per 
bushel, now it sells at seventy-five cents. Sweet potatoes, 
which sold in 1856, for $1 per bushel, now rarely sells for 
fifty cents. There are no oxen, nor a plough in the county. 
Nor is there a farm inclosed. I had to-day for dinner, the 
last I shall ever eat probably in this county, fresh beef, chick- 
ens, fresh fish, eddoes, and sweet potatoes. I learned to eat 
sweet potatoes at an age when we learn to know what is 
good to eat. And I believe the reader, by this time, wiW not 
question that I could have an abundant supply in Liberia. I 
could obtain only the exports of oil in this county. In 1856, 
there were eighteen thousand eight hundred and forty gal- 
lons exported. In 1857, twenty-six thousand eight hundred 
and fifty-three gallons, and three hundred bushels of palm 
kernels. We have alluded to the opposite shore of the Si- 
noe river at its mouth on the Blue Barre side. We stopped 
there to see its situation. After walking in difi'erent direc- 
tions over the land to see the face and soil of some one thou- 
sand acres, I was struck with the difierence of the location 
of this land with that at Greenville. It was high rolling 
land with a good soil, and I should think, by digging, there 
would be good water. The sea beach is on its south-east 
border. It runs back to one of the little streams peculiar to 
this country; then another tract of land occurs stretching 
back to a swamp whose waters lead to a creek that empties 
into the Sinoe river.* The land is a rich sandy loam in some 
places, and clay mixed with sand in other places. A num- 
ber of natives called fishermen live at this point. They had 
beans, cassada, sweet potatoes, melons, &c. growing, which 
indicated by their growth, good land. It is a far better place 
for a town than that of Greenville. I learned in Greenville 
that it was desired for a town before Greenville was com- 
menced, but the Blue Barre tribe would not permit the Libe- 
rians to settle on the land. It would be a wise measure to 
secure its possession at this time, even by having to indorse 
it as the payment of the $1,000. In this county there are 
some very high hills back from the coast. They are put 
down on the chart at their heights: one is two hundred and 



LIBERIA, AS 1 FOUND IT. 



141 



sixty feet, another two hundred and ninety feet, a third two 
hundred and sixty feet, a fourth two hundred feet, and a fifth 
one hundred and ninety feet. About fifteen mi.es north-eas- 
terly from the last knob, Mt. Sugar loaf, from its formation, 
is seven hundred and thirty feet. In this county is the 
Kroo country. The tribe in this county is not as large as 
other tribes are. The men give themselves more to a seafar- 
ing life than those of any other tribe on the coast. The 
chiefs of this tribe have faithfully kept their treaty with the 
Liberian Government, I went on board of the ship at 6 P, 
M., never expecting to be in this county again. It has been 
a visit of interest with me. Thermometer at 7 P. M. 82°. 
The ship soon got under way for Buchanan. The Doctor, at 
this place, taking passage to Monrovia to get to Caseyburg 
to attend to the emigrants there. 

January 22. Thermometer at 7 A. M. 78°. There had 
been a hard rain in the night, with much thunder. The sun 
came out clear. The wind is very light. The coast present- 
ed nothing different from the general appearance it bears for 
hundreds of miles. The palm tree and the cotton tree car- 
ry themselves high over the other trees. So light had been 
the wind, and so strong the current against us, that it was 
a question whether, in our beating about, we were three 
miles above where w^e were last evening, or three miles be- 
low it. At 7 P. M. the thermometer v/as 82°. 

January 23. Thermometer at 7 A. M. 81o. The wind 
was light, but more favorable. All day we were called to 
exercise patience, and we retired to bed wishing we had 
more of it. Thermometer at 7 P. M. 81°. 

January 24. Thermometer at 7 A. M. 82°. Expected we 
should reach Buchanan by 12, noon; but did not cast anchor 
off of 

BUCHANAN 
until 9 P. M. Thermometer at 7 P. M. Sl^. 

January 25. Thermometer at 7 A. M. 79°. The morning 
was cloudy, and there had been rain the past night. The 
breakers on the St. John's river were in full sight. I went 
on shore to finish up my examinations of the county of Bas- 
sa. There is no evidence, under any aspect of Buchanan, 
that it is one town. Not one street runs from one ward to 
the other ward. Each ward was built up distinct, as it were, 
because each ward was a distinct town, Bassa and Fishtown. 
Upper Buchanan has one hundred and thirt3'-six tax payers, 
and lower Buchanan has sixty-five. In looking over the tax 
list, there was a difference in the estimated wealth of the 
two wards. In lower Buchanan, the tax payers paid a tax 
from 17 cents to ^1 96, except one person, who paid a tax of 



142 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



$4 20. Only seven of the tax payers paid from $1 50 to 
$1 96. In upper Buchanan, the tax ranged from 15 cents to 
^12 55. One person paid $12 15; two paid over $9; nine 
paid from $S to $7. The amount of property assessed in 
both wards was $23,700. The lowest estimate of a lot was 
$40. Outside of the town were farm lots of five and ten 
acres. But four families lived on farm lands in this town- 
ship. Several persons living in the town, went out and 
worked on their I'arm lands. A few of the townsmen had 
bought land of the government, and let it lay unimproved, 
for the rise of the mai ket. There are some houses in upper 
Buchanan which cost from $800 to $4,000, while many of the 
othei's cost from $45 to $200. The richest man in the town was 
estimated at $15,000; one at $7,000; two at $3,000: two at 
$1,000, and eight at $500; while many went down to $45, leav- 
ing out those who had nothing to be estimated but their hands, 
which ought to have earned, by work, something handsome 
to show. But I must say I did not see more of this class in 
this town than I should see in other towns, in proportion to 
the number of persons. I saw a very valuable steam saw 
mill going the same way that that at Greenville is going. It 
is owned in part here, and in part in the United States. I 
think it is very probable the United States partners are silent 
partners. It is not pleasant to see suck a waste. The whip 
saw is the great reliance of the county for lumber. Nine of 
ihein tind woik. Logs can be bought at Buchanan, from fif- 
teen to twenty inches in diameter and twelve feet long, for 
55 to 75 cents each, according to the kind of wood. Lumber 
is sold at the piices it is sold at in Monrovia. I saw a jack, 
the only one in Liberia. He was biought from the interior, 
and was owned by Pi esident Benson. He was ten years old. 
He me.asuied three leet lour inches high, and three feet ten 
inches long, from the centre of the ears to the tail. He had 
been tried, but did not breed; and now he has no opportuni- 
ty, for there is neither mare nor jenny in the county. There 
aie two mules — one a very good animal; but both are used 
for the saddle, and not for work. Nor was there a yoke of 
oxen in the county. Some persons had had them, but fear- 
ing they might die, eat them. Cejtainly if the cattle can 
live long enough to be raised and continue living, why not 
break them to the yoke, and get the benefit of a good crop, 
which will more than compensate lor their loss by death, if 
thty must die by v/orking them. There are sixty head of 
cattle in the county, and a number of hogs, and sheep and 
goats. The tejnperature of the water in the springs and 
wells was 70°. There are three schools in the town. I found 
the children well dressed for school, and showed a readiness 



LIBERIA, AS 1 FCUKD IT. 



143 



to learn as other children of their age. Some of the scholars 
were in the higher branches of study in English. They have 
a Young Men's Literary Association (incorporated) in this 
town. Upper Buchanan has three hundred and liity souls. 
The number of natives in the county is estimated at fifteen 
thousand. The militia of the county numbers two hundred 
and fifty men. There are nine cannon, of different weights, 
placed in the different settlements for defense. They keep 
on hand eight barrels of powder and ten thousand pounds of 
cannon balls. There has been no war in this county since 
1851. In that war, nine Liberians were killed. Ftteen na- 
tives have become citizens of the Republic, who live in this 
county. Of the one thousand muskets Liberia received from 
France, two hundred of them were given to this county. Iti 
1857, there were five cases oi grand larceny, and one case of 
infanticide. The woman was sentenced to work two years 
in the chain gang. I met the lawyer who defended the poor 
distressed native wife, and inquired what had been done with 
her. He told me she had fled; where it was not known. She 
certainly is a very determinate woman. 1 doubt whether 
the doctor is still attending on her. I dined to-day with a 
merchant who emigrated from North Carolina. He had ac- 
cumulated a handsome estate. We had for dinner, iresh 
beef, ham, chickens and cassada, eddoes and sweet potatoes. 
Pies and preserves were our dessert, and ale and water our 
drinks. His wife came from the estate of Dr. Hawes, of 
Virginia; and the good v^^oman had got into the habit of pre- 
senting her husband with a child every year. Fi'om the town 
clerk's books. I found in 1857 there had been in Buchanan, 
both wards, eighteen births and thirty-one deaths. In the 
collector's office I obtained more full information of the im- 
ports and exports of the county than I had obtained in either 
of the other three counties. The imports at this port of 
entry, in the gross amounts, were as follows: 



English, $22,680 32 



1854. 



United States, 
German, 



33,231 32 
9,396 85 



$65,309 49 



1855. 



American, - 



$ 22,975 09 
12,973 11 
19,907 73 



English, 
German, 
French, 



737 50 



$56,593 47 



144 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



1856. 

American, - - $15,528 74 

English, 6,451 74 

German, 16,407 58 

French, 3^600 00 



$41,988 06 

1857. 

$18,919 64 
7,960 15 
7,402 44 
74 00 



$34,356 23 

It will be seen there is a falling off in the whole amount 
of imports; bat the least falling off is in the American goods. 
A trader informed me that the Enoflish, German and French 
traded more below Cape Palmas than they did years back, 
as the palm oil was not obtained so readily in Bassa county 
as it was formerly. 

The exports for the corresponding j^ears was as follows : 

1854. 

456 tons of camwood. 
131,887 gallons of palm oil. 
126 pounds of ivory. 
2,120 pounds of coffee.— All valuad at $71,623. 

1855. 

337 tons of camwood. 
80,740 gallons of palm oil. 

761 pounds of ivory.— All valued at $56,000. 

1856. 

381 tons of camwood. 
53,998 gallons of palm oil. 
296 pounds of ivory. 
1,492 pounds of coffee.— All valued at $41,477 63. 

1857. 

377 tons of camwood. 
32,515 gallons of palm oil. 
8,980 pounds of coffee.— All valued at $34,884 37. 
It will be seen that there is an increase in the quantity of 
coffee exported, but a falling off in the shipment of palm oil. 
It will be seen, except the years 1854 and 1857, the imports 
exceeded the exports. 

There are two reasons assigned for the falling off in the 
palm oil trade. 1. The natives having failed in the two last 



American, - 
English, 
German, 
French, 



LIBEEIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



145 



years to raise their usual quantit}" of rice, by reason of the 
uncommon dearth in Liberia in 1856, they used so much of 
the pahn tree cabbage and palm nuts for food, that there were 
not nuts enough at hand to make their usual quantity of oil. 
This may be so, and it may be not; for before the dearth in 
1854, in this county, the natives brought in 131,887 gallons, 
and in 1855, but 80,741 gallons — a difference of 51,146 gal- 
lons. 2. The trader not getting a full cargo of oil from this 
port and the trading towns in the county, would go to Sinoe 
and fill out his cargo, and clear his vessel at the port of Si- 
noe; but as the same occurrence could take place in Sinoe 
county, and the vessel come to the trading points in Bassa 
county to fill up and then clear out at Bassa, this would ver}^ 
much neutralize the force of this reason. But the falling olT is 
general in Liberia; while it is a fact that the number of the 
palm trees can be increased yearly in the land, with little at- 
tention, and should bring in other and more systematic la- 
borers, viz: Liberians, to increase its quantity for exportation. 
The whole number of inhabitants in this county may be put 
down at one thousand and fourteen, Americo Liberians. 
There is but one white person in the county, the Episcopal 
clergyman referred to as living on Mission creek. 

As I am now to leave this county, I would not wish to make 
an impression on the mind of the reader that this county 
should hereafter have no emigrants advised to settle in it. 
I would most candidly say, I would not advise an emigrant 
leaving the United States to locate or acclimate at Edina, 
Bassa, or Fishtown. A healthier location can be found up 
the river. And if the emigrant has money to enter into the 
trade of oil and camwood, (for no county in Liberia has such 
a quantity of the wood in its forests as this county has,) after 
his acclimation, he could go to one of the places on the sea 
beach. But good trade will bring articles to be sold at any 
good reasonable distance. I returned to the ship, and found 
several bags of cofl^ee on board which were designed for the 
friends of the shippers in the United States. The thermome- 
ter at 7 P. M. 82o. When we weighed anchor for Monrovia, 
I cast my lot in my state room for sleep. 

January 2Q. Thermometer 82° at 7 A. M. Our progress 
during the night had been slow, though we had had the land 
and sea breeze. How light these winds are sometimes 
when a ship's crew want to go ahead ! At 11 A. M. Cape 
Mesurado hove in sight; and at 1 P. M., we saw Monrovia. 
Soon we were moored off" of the town for the last time of my 
tour to Liberia. We were gratified in seeing the American 
naval ship Vincennes lying at anchor, w^ith that valued flag 
spread to the breeze, that told us we had protecting friends 
10 



146 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



evea so far from home. A Dutch ship, a French schoon- 
er, a Baltimore ketch, and the Liberia naval schooner Lark, 
were lying here at anchor. The Lark was a present from 
the British Government to Liberia. Her flag had six red 
stripes, with five white stripes alternately displayed longi- 
tudinally. In the upper angle of the flag next to the spear is 
a square blue ground, covering in depth five inches, in the 
centre of which is a white star. At 3 P. M. I visited 

MONROVIA. 

I made arrangements with President Benson to select for 
the Kentuck}^ Colonization Society four miles square of 
land where I thought best, I came across some fine citron. 
The citron grows on a shrub the size ot a large quince tree, 
and is a good bearer. In shape, the citron is like a large 
bell pear, but larger in every proportion. The one I had, 
weighed five pounds. It is acid in its raw state. The rind 
is thick. It makes a delicious preserve. I had my attention 
drawn to the laws of Liberia in regard to navigation, com- 
merce, and revenue, in a conversation with a trader. These 
laws are very explicit, and show the measures taken by Li- 
beria to raise a revenue. Her own vessels, which sail outside 
of her rivers, being over five tons, are required to have a 
register, and must be owned by a Liberian. The vessel pays 
a tax of sevent3'-five cents per ton per annum. She can 
trade coastwise only by taking out a license. For the whole- 
sale trade, the license is $15; for retailing, it is $12. A for- 
eigner arriving from a foreign port, must enter his vessel and 
cargo at some established port of entry in the Republic. The 
cargo can be landed in whole or in part. If the master or 
owner of the vessel wishes to trade at points beyond the lim- 
its of the ports of entry of the Republic, he has, before he 
commences to unlade an}^ part of his cargo, to give to the 
Collector a written statement of his intention to trade coast- 
wise, stating the names of the places he intends to trade at. 
He pays seventy-five cents per ton per year, and also ob- 
tains a license for each place he trades at. One-third of the 
assessment of the tariff' duties are paid down, and the re- 
maining two-thirds are secured to the Government by bonds 
to be paid in equal installments of sixty and ninety days af- 
ter date. All goods or merchandize landed in violation of 
these provisions are forfeited, and the master or owner so 
landing them is, upon conviction, fined $1000 for each and 
every such offense ; distress of weather, or "some unavoida- 
ble accident" alone, can exempt from a fine and the forfeiture 
of goods, on conviction. No goods can be landed by any 
foreign vessel from a foreign port before she has come to 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT, 



H7 



the proper place to discharge her cargo, according to her 
clearance papers. No trade is allowed in the harbors of the 
Republic, between foreigners and foreigners; nor between 
foreigners and Liberians, without accounting to the Collector 
of the port for the duties arising on the goods traded. The 
regular impost, or customs on goods, wares, or merchandize, 
brought into the Republic, is six per cent., except in cases of 
direct consignment from abroad to citizens of the Republic, 
or other persons residing within the jurisdiction of the same; 
then two per cent, is added to the six per cent. duty. This, 
two per cent, duty is called extra duty. If the goods are not 
to be landed, but are to be sold under a coast license, then 
the duty is only six per centum. Export duties are one cent 
on each gallon of palm oil; five per cent, on gold and silver; 
and two per cent, on all other articles of export. The an- 
chorage and light house duties on foreign vessels, are $15, 
It is made unlawful for any citizen, or any other person with- 
in the Republic, to sell or barter any goods or merchandize, 
or vendible property, or transact any business for any foreign- 
er, without first obtaining a commission merchant's license. 
That license cannot comprehend but one place of business. 
A special license may be had for as many places as he pleas- 
es. A laborer, mechanic, and farmer, may exchange the 
products of his labor for articles of the trader that are ne- 
cessary for the consumption of his family; but the exchange 
must be made at the home of the individual making it. The 
design of the law is to compel foreigners engaged in trade 
with Liberia, to employ a Liberian broker or commission 
merchant to sell his goods for him. In his own name, a for- 
eigner cannot take out a license to sell; nor can he keep the 
books in his own name, or give a receipt for cash paid for 
goods in his own name. All the business is done in the name 
of the Liberian employed by the foreigner. The owner, if 
present, is the clerk. What if the Liberian should play the 
rogue, and bring forward the license, and the books to show 
he is owner of the "lock, stock, and barrel?" One thing is 
certain, no one can pay but to him who has bought goods of 
the store. The compensation given to the broker is five per 
cent. The foreigner pays all the expenses of rent, clerk 
hire, &c. Returned to the ship, and found the thermometer 
at 7 P. M. was 82o. 

January 27. The thermometer at 7 A. M. was 82°. I went 
on shore at 

MONROVIA, 

to gain information in regard to Liberia's civil and judicial 
arrangements. I learnt that the Liberia Herald, a paper 



148 



LIBERIA, AS I FO¥ND IT. 



published monthly in this town for many years, had been 
stopped. It became a warm party paper in a former Presi- 
dential canvass, and at its close, could not sustain itself for 
want of subscribers. The press is used for public and pri- 
vate business printing. It is contemplated to start a paper 
that shall not be a party paper. There are eight white per- 
sons residing in this county. Seven of them live in Monrovia, 
viz: two Presbyterian Missionaries, three merchants, (two 
German and one American,) and two consuls, one English^ 
the other American. The eighth, a female teacher, lives at 
White Plains. Two of the merchants were Germans, and 
the other was from the United States. One consul was English, 
and the other American. Liberia has made treaties with 
England, France, and the Free Hanseatic Republics of Lu- 
bick, Bremen, and Hamburg. By these treaties, Liberia 
grants such freedom in commercial intercourse to the citizens 
of those countries, that they can reside in th« ports of entry in 
the Republic, or at any place within the limits of the same, 
rent houses in their own names, open such for mercantile 
business, transport their goods, merchandise and the products 
they have purchased, without the intervention of brokers. 
No hindrance or molestation is to be put in their way. They 
are not to be prejudiced in their trade by any monopoly, or 
privilege to others in buying and selling. They are to have 
full and entire protection for their persons and property, 
v\/hile trading among the natives, as if they were Liberians. 
But the citizens of nations fnot in treaty with Liberia have 
no protection of their persons and property guaranteed to 
them while trading with the natives; nor any assurance that 
nothing prejudicial to their trade with Liberians or natives, 
shall be done by any monopoly or privilege to others. The 
English, the French, the Germans, can trade with the assur- 
ance oi Liberian patronage; but the citizens of the land that 
gave to Liberia her citizens and her name, and upon whom 
alone she has to depend for future citizens by emigration, 
must do their business by, and in the name of brokers, or a 
commission merchant: or, in other words, pay five per cent, 
on every dollar's worth of goods they sell to Liberians or na- 
tives. Is this a method devised to compel the United States 
Government to acknowledge the independence of Liberia ? 
If any one has an idea that any one of the officers of the 
Colonization Society is or has been engaged in the Liberian 
trade, he can see that such officer has a fair prospect of an 
account in his ledger, of profit and loss. I dined with Mr. 
James to-day, whos(i table had the usual good things spread 
on it, that I had before found upon it. What good cooks 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 149 

they have in Liberia ! The thermometer on board ship at 7 
P. M. was 810. 

January 2S. The thermometer at 7 A. M. 76°. There was 
a heavy rain, and very heavy thunder, before day-break. I 
took a boat, and went up to Clay Ashland to make a further 
examination of land in that township in regard to having the 
Receptacles put up in some part of it. Many of the leading 
men in this township proposed to me that they would hold a 
public meeting in Clay Ashland, and settle on some propo- 
sitions to be presented to me in Monrovia to-morrow, in re- 
gard to having the Receptacles put up in this township. This 
was a feature of society that I learnt was an ordinary meas- 
ure in the settlements when any public measure called the 
attention of the people to its consideration. It was a plan 
that gave an opportunity of bringing out citizens to exercise 
a public influence that it is desirable for communities to have. 
It is true it may be abused, yet communities, as a whole, 
will thus be able to judge who of their number are judicious 
and wise counsellors. I dined to-day with the Rev. Mr, 
Erskine, a Presbyterian minister. He is a black man. We 
bad for dinner, palm butter, with chickens, and fresh fish, 
with different vegetables that are good and nourishing. Re- 
turned to the ship at 9 P. M. and learnt that the thermometer 
at 7 P. M. was 8lo. 

January 29. Thermometer at 7 A. M. was 82^, I met in 
Monrovia a number of the people from the Kentucky settle- 
ment, who presented proposals to me that they had selected 
two carpenters of responsibility, who were of sufficient wealth 
individually to enter into bonds to put up the buildings on 
any ground I should select in their township, by the 15th day 
of April, 1858, taking the materials from the whurf in Mon- 
rovia, at the same price that similar buildings were put up 
in Greenville; and no payment for their work be made unless 
the Agent of the American Colonization Society was satis- 
fied that the contract was fully and faithfully complied with. 
The cost of putting up each building in Greenville, was §78. 
This covered the putting up of stone pillars three feet high, 
and the painting of the building with two coats of paint. 
This amount had been stated to the persons offering to make 
the contract. I allude to this matter to show that contracts 
can be made for putting up buildings in Liberia, by persons 
in this country, with the prospect of having them fulfilled. 
I agreed to meet the persons in Clay Ashland, and give 
them a final answer. I dined to-da}' with President Benson. 
There were some thirty persons at the table. Four of the 
guests were whites, the rest were Liberians. And the Li- 
berian guests presented a good specimen of the ministry, the 



150 LIBERIA^ AS I FOUND IT. 

bar, the mercantile, the legisiative, the executive, and medi- 
cal portion of the land. But I also think there were others 
who were absent who would be as good representatives of 
the same departments referred to. Of course the great sub- 
ject of conversation would be Liberia in the sight of an ob- 
serving white man. The table was a well furnished table. 
There was ham, turkey, shoat, roast beef, chickens, ducky 
chicken pie, rice, banana, plaintain, cassada, eddoes, sweet 
potatoes, and pies of the paw paw, arid other tropical fruits, 
with a good supply of preserves. Our drink was water, lem- 
onade, and wine, of which last article I was glad to notice 
but few of the guests drank. All the articles on the table 
were of Liberian growth but the ham and w^ine. The hall, 
the parlor, and the dining room were well furnished, and I 
do not doubt the more private rooms were equally as well 
furnished. It was the first instance in my life of dining with 
such a dining party. I had my reflections at my position ; but 
I certainly saw nothing but polite bearing on the part of the 
Liberia guests. They are the lords of the soil, and a white 
man is invited to their tables according to their estimate of his 
standing. It is the same principle that governs us in our 
land in passing by the black man as our equal and associate. 
I learnt that the eight persons who came on shore from the 
ship to reside here, have been sick, but are recovering from 
the attack of the fever. The thermometer on board ship at 7 
P. M. was 82°. 

January 80. The thermometer at 7 A. M. 82^. I took a 
boat to visit the Kentucky Settlement. As I passed up the St. 
Paul's river, now familiar to my eye, I found my attention 
was still attracted to its scenery. It is certainly the best part 
of improved Liberia, taken as a whole. In thinking over the 
productions of Liberia, it occurred to me that I had not seen 
any hemp or flax growing here. It may be that both or one 
is raised, but I have not heard of its being done. And as no 
premium was offered at the fair for either article, it is pre- 
sumed neither article is raised here. There is a kind of grass 
grown here that is used for makins: grass ropes, and which 
the natives use to make bags for light articles to be carried 
in. Liberia imports her rope. I was in the woods in the 
Kentucky Settlement until 4 P. M. I selected ten acres of 
ground on a rise of land, wiih. running water at its base, for 
the Receptacles to be put upon. There was stone at hand 
for buiding purposes. The object of selecting ten acres, was 
to have room for other similar buildings to be put up at a 
future time; and to have land on which the various vegeta- 
ble productions of Liberia might be cultivated by the labor 
of the emigrants who occupied the rooms during six months. 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



151 



I am now of the opinion a building of one room 30 by 15, 
one story high, should also be put up on the ground. It would 
be for a hospital. When any one was sick, he could be 
placed in the room, where the nurse and the sick would be 
able to do and receive what would not so comfortably and 
conveniently be enjoyed in the room where the whole family 
resided. For clearing an acre of this land. I agreed to give 
nine dollars. A quarter of a mile farther, I selected a body 
of well timbered rolling land, four miles square, and con- 
tracted with a county surveyor to run off carefully and cor- 
rectly the four miles, and then survey ofi a half mile into 
lots of five and ten acres, throwing the five acre lots con- 
tiguous, and the ten acre lot next, and so on, numbering the 
lots 1, 2, 3, (fee, giving a proper avenue between the lots, so 
that a settler can draw his land, five or ten acres as the case 
may be, having an opportunity reserved for him to add by 
purchase, five acres to his five or ten acres drawn. For sur- 
veying the lots, 18 cents per acre was agreed upon, the sur- 
veyor being at all the expense of making the survey, and 
sending a draft of the survey to me by mail. The Agent of 
the American Society in Monrovia was to decide that the 
survey was done according to the contract. The money for 
the work was left with President Benson, to pay it to the 
contractors when the Agent certified to him the work was 
done right. 

The land had living w^ater on it, but the settlers, in gener- 
al, would have to depend on wells. The distance of the 
land from the St. Paul's river, is a mile and a half, and from 
Clay Ashland, two miles and a half. The selected tract is 
farther up the river than Clay Ashland. The whole cost of 
each building, when put up, and painted, including the clear- 
ing of the acre of groun-d, will be $450. The freight from 
Baltimore to Liberia, the American Society did not charge. 
Each building is 30 by 14. The entrance to the second story 
is by stairs on the outside. In selecting the Kentucky Settle- 
ment for the Receptacles instead of Harrisburg, I was gov- 
♦ erned chiefly by the disadvantages of the falls to Harrisburg 
in cutting off a good landing place for the town. Clay Ash- 
land being on the river, having a good landing place, secures 
to the Kentucky township all the advantages which a town 
can give to a township. From all that I learnt from differ- 
ent persons who had visited Careysburg, and knew its bear- 
ings from the St. Paul's river, I found by drawing a line from 
the selected ground for the Receptacles, due east and west, 
Careysburg would not be six miles, if that, north of the line. 
But as the coast runs northwest and southeast, it makes Ca- 
reysburg only 25 miles north of Marshall, which is 30 miles 



152 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



below Monrovia on the sea coast. My impressions were, 
while in Liberia, and they are the same since my return to 
the United States, from the statements of nine Liberians 
who had been to Careysburg, that if a line was drawn from 
Harrisburg parallel with the sea coast, Careysburg might be 
one mile further in the interior than Harrisburg, and possibly 
five miles further in the interior by that line than the spot 
I selected for the Receptacles to be placed on. Of this! am 
fully satisfied that emigrants can acclimate with much safe- 
ty to life and health at either of the places. But I do not 
believe a person acclimating far back in the interior will ex- 
empt himself from an attack of the "fever," if he returns to 
the coast to live. Nature seems always to call for a con- 
geniality of the human sj'stem for a residence in an exchang- 
ed climate. Locality is to be considered in meeting this de- 
mand, yet the change must be, more or less, prepared for. 
It will be remembered, the cattle from the interior have to 
acclimate to live on the coast. Here I would notice in re- 
gard to the ant called the driver. I had noticed this ant at 
Cape Mount, and in all my visits on shore; in the woods, and 
in the cleared land; in sandy soil, and clay soil. I may be 
incorrect, but it is m}^ impressien that in proportion to the 
improvements of the land, these ants are seen less in im- 
proved lands than in the woods and newly cleared land; and 
less on sandy land than on clay land. These ants go in a 
long train, some one hundred and fifty yards long, with larger 
ants of the same family arranged all along at proper dis- 
tances on each side of the train, as officers of different grades. 
The train moves in rapid motion, as if bent on some known 
expedition. They will, if your foot is placed on the train, still 
move on over the foot, with such numbers as to raise that 
foot by their bites, thus suffering the loss of those carried off* 
by the removal of the foot, while the train goes on in its reg- 
ular march. It was said of the leviathan, " lay thine hand 
upon him, remember the battle, do no more." Their bite is 
very severe. I have seen sand thrown up in a pile to turn 
the line of march from an entrance into a house, but it was* 
a futile embankment. They go in thousands. They are so 
well understood in their habits that they are allowed to take 
their own M^ay. If they enter the house, they go through it 
and cleanse it of every vermin in it. Prudence gives them 
the occupancy of the house, whether the visit is made in the 
day or night; and they do their work up quick, and go on 
their way. 1 did not fear them, for I had but to step over 
them as I crossed their path. They molested me not when- 
ever I stood and watched their ways. On my return to Clay 
Ashland, it v^^as late, but I had to stop for dinner. I dined on 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



153 



fresh fish, chickens, bacon, cassada, and sweet potatoes. 
How careful "my colored brethren" are of me. I reached 
the ship at 9 P. M. The thermometer at 7 P. M. was 82o. 

January 31. Thermometer at 7 A. M. 8lo. This being 
the Sabbath day, I went on shore and preached in the Pres- 
byterian church. I dined with a Methodist minister, from 
Norfolk, Va., who, in his early days, did much work as a 
carpenter, on my father's estate. He is a very useful and 
active minister, and an influential citizen. He is worth from 
$10,000 to $12,000. The Secretary of State, who is an elder 
in the Presbyterian church, dined with us. We had for din- 
ner, ham, roast chickens, ducks, fresh beef, with a great va- 
riety of African vegetables. Our conversation brought up 
the social and religious condition of colored persons in Libe- 
ria and the United States. Both of the persons could speak 
intelligibly from experience. I was struck with the earnest 
and decisive manner of the Secretary's declaration to me: 
"Mr. Cowan, I am thankful that I came to Liberia. I am 
proud to be called a citizen of Liberia." He is right; and I 
said in my heart and mind, if I were a colored man, I would 
make this land my land, and its privileges my privileges. I 
attended a most interesting Sabbath school of native chil- 
dren in the Presbyterian church, conducted by Rev. Mr. Wil- 
liams, a white Presbyterian minister, living in Monrovia. 
Returned to the ship, never expecting to attend public wor- 
ship again in this place. Thermometer at 7 P. M. 82°. 

February 1. Thermometer at 7 A. M. 77°. I had the dif- 
ferent parts of the Receptacles placed together in bundles, 
and landed at the wharf in Monrovia. I delivered them up 
to the contractors, to be put up in the Kentucky settlement. 
I obtained from President Benson the loan of the census of 
Mesurado county, and he furnished me with a copy of the 
Treasurer's annual report. Neither of these documents had 
been printed. I dined w^ith Mr. Dennis, who gave me an ex- 
cellent dinner, such as I eat the first day I dined in Monro- 
via. I find that the basis of the civil laws of Liberia is such 
parts of the common law as is set forth in Blackstone's Com- 
mentaries, and are applicable to the situation of the people, 
except they are changed by the laws passed and in force, or 
shall be hereafter enacted by the Legislature of Liberia. If 
a person leaves Liberia with the intention not to return, he 
forfeits his claim to the land he holds a certificate for, that he 
shall have a deed for it when he has made the specified im- 
provements stated in the certificate. If he has obtained a 
title to it, on his removal he can sell the land to a Liberian; 
or if he wishes, he can hold his land title while he makes a 
visit to the United States. If, while absent from Liberia, he 



154 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



becomes a citizen of the another country, and returns back 
to Liberia, he must take the oath of allegiance to Liberia to 
have the right of citizenship in Liberia. 

The courts in Liberia are designed to meet the wants of 
the people in every circumstance, to protect their rights, and 
mete out to them justice. They are the Magistrate's Court, 
the Probate and Monthly Court, Quarter Sessions Court, and 
Admiralty Court, and the Supreme Court. There is also the 
Native Commission Court. This court is composed of three 
Commissioners, one of them to be a surveyor. Their jurisdic- 
tion is w^hat pertains to the purchase of territory of the na- 
tives residing beyond the territory of Liberia, the receiving 
preemptive rights to their lands, and the purchase of their 
lands. We have referred to the court to settle difficulties 
arising among natives by their application for its decision. 
The Magistrate's Court has its powers defined. The Magis- 
trate can issue warrants in the name of the Republic, to 
command the seizure and arrest of any felon or violator of 
the public peace, and commit the person to jail until a legal 
action can be had in the premises. If the offense is not capi- 
tal, and the accused can give bond and sufficient security to 
abide his trial, he is not imprisoned. The Magistrate can 
have jurisdiction out of court, without a jury, to try all ac- 
tions for debt not above thirty dollars, except a specific per- 
formance, injunction and ejectment, and actions for injuries 
to the reputation or domestic relations; all cases of petit 
larceny, all actions of trover, trespass, &c., where the amount 
in litigation is not over ten dollars, and all petty infractions 
of the peace, where the fine is not more than ten dollars, and 
to preserve order, &c. On all judgments rendered he shall, 
when required b}^ the defendant, and sufficient security is 
given, allow five months to pay all sums of $20; under $20, 
and over $15, four months; under $15, and over $10, three 
months; under $10, and over $5, two months; under $5, and 
over $2, one month, and all sums under $2, ten days. At 
the expiration of the time, as the sum may be, if payment is 
not made, an execution may be issued immediately against 
the defendant and his security; and the goods or chattels 
levied on after ten days notice, are to be sold to pay the debt 
and costs. An appeal can be taken from every decision of a 
justice of the peace, to the next inferior court having juris- 
diction at the place. No judgment of a justice of the peace 
shall be set aside for error in form; but all appeals from jus- 
tices shall be taken up by the court to which they are made 
anew, and upon the merits of the case, and such judgment 
given as the justices ought to have given. The Probate and 
Monthly Court is composed of a chairman and two justices of 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



155 



the peace, and meets monthly. It has the management and 
care of estates of orphans not otherwise provided for by 
law, and of ordinary wills proven in court to be recorded. 
Contested wills are sent to the Court of Commons Pleas, to 
be tried by jury, subject to appeal to the Supreme Court. 
Property can be willed by the owner of it, as he judges best 
to dispose of it. His natural heirs are his children, or near- 
est of kin, wheresoever they may live, and can present suit- 
able vouchers that they can legally claim the property. The 
widow, by law, is entitled to one- third of the real estate du- 
ring her natural life, and to one-third of the personal estate, 
which she shall hold in her own right, subject to alienation 
by her, by devise or otherwise. A widow may recover her 
dower in ejectment. When a person dies without a will, and 
leaves no heirs in Liberia, the perishing property is sold by 
order of the Probate Court, and the money, after paying the 
legal expenses, is deposited in the Treasury, subject to the 
lawful claim of a foreign heir. No person is allowed to 
meddle or interfere with the estate of any person dying in- 
testate, (except to take true and correct inventories of all 
the real and personal estate) unless authorized so to do by 
the Court of Probate for the county wherein the intestate re- 
sided. Any person so doing becomes liable for the payment 
of all the debts due by the deceased, and for the respective 
shares of all the natural or legal heirs to such estate. When 
the person shall die intestate, the court appoints the admin- 
istrator, w^ho gives bond and security in double the estimated 
value of said intestate's estate, for the faithful discharge of 
all the duties connected therewith. The compensation al- 
lowed the administrator is five per cent, on the estate. If the 
administrator performs his duty in such a manner as to have 
occasioned loss to the estate, the party sustaining the loss can 
sue upon the bond, in any court competent to try the same. 
In the recess of the court, the chairman of the court may 
grant letters of administration. This court has also original 
jurisdiction in all cases of debt of more than $30 to $200; in 
all cases of misdemeanor, equal to petit larceny; in all actions 
of trespass, trover, slander, &c., where the amount in litiga- 
tion is not more than $20 nor less than $10; all infractions 
of the peace where the fine is more than $10, and not less 
than $20, and is competent to judge both the law and the 
facts in such cases. Said court can judicially examine a 
criminal committed by a justice of the peace, by examining the 
evidence only on the side of the State, to decide whether the 
accused may be discharged, or shall, on giving good security 
for his appearance, be sent on to trial in the Quarter Session 
Court. The sheriff of the county is the ministerial officer of 



156 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



this court. He serves all writs, takes bail, and carries the 
judgment of the court into execution. The register records 
all documents and instruments relating to the security and 
title of public or individual property, government grants, 
patents, matter of record, and to which the Republic shall 
be a party. He is to register papers of record from the 
county clerk, and file them in alphabetical order, and when 
a volume is full, it is to be delivered by him to the Secretary 
of State for preservation among the archives of the Repub- 
lic. The chairman of this court cannot exercise the func- 
tions nor perform the duties of a justice of the peace. His du- 
ties are confined to the Monthly Court. This court meets in 
Mesurado county the first Monday in every month; in Bassa, 
the second Monday; in Since, the third Monday, and in Mary- 
land, the first Monday. The Court of Common Pleas, or 
Quarter Sessions, has one Judge, who holds the court once 
in three months, in the county he resides. His salary is $200 
a 3^ear. This court has trial of prisoners sent from the 
Monthly Court, and all presentments or indictments which 
may be found by the Grand Jury. It has power to impannel 
grand and petit juries; it has original jurisdiction in all cases 
of debt over $200; of crimes and misdemeanors above the 
degree of petit larceny; of all infractions of the peace, and 
when the fine is over $20, or the damages claimed are more 
than $20. It has appellate jurisdiction in all cases going up 
from the Monthly Court. The sheriff' of the county is the 
ministerial officer of this court while transacting the judicial 
business of the county. This court, as well as the Supreme 
Court, has full power to hear and determine all disputes about 
the distribution of moneys arising from sheriff^s or marshal's 
sales, according to law and equity; but the persons interested 
in the distribution must have notice to appear before the de- 
cision of the Courtis made. So in the case of disputes about 
the validity of titles to real estates, this court has also the 
power to decide in regard to frauds or fraudulent double con- 
veyance of an estate, and to hear and determine all claims 
for land from the government. It has also original juris- 
diction in all cases of admiralty, and of seizure under the 
navigation, commerce and revenue laws of the Republic, 
which embrace violations of any treaty, crimes committed 
on the high seas, all cases of piracies according to the law 
of nations, and all things properly belonging to a Court of 
Admiralty. The court can set but two weeks to transact its 
business. There can be an appeal to the Supreme Court in 
all cases decided by this court, with or without the interven- 
tion of a jury, if desired by a party agrieved by its decision. 
This court meets in Mesurado county the second Monday in 



LIBEKIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



157 



March, June, September and December in every year; in 
Bassa county, on the fourth Monday of these months; in Si- 
noe county, on the first Monday in February, May, August, 
and November in each year; and in Maryland county, the 
second Monday of these months. 

The Supreme Court consists of a Chief Justice and tvi^o 
Judges of two County Courts of Common Pleas. The Judge 
of the Court of Common Pleas serves for two years. One 
Judge goes out eveiy year, so as to have every year one new 
Judge on the bench. The Chief Justice, through the chair- 
man of the Monthly Court, notifies the Judge of the Court of 
Common Pleas to occupy the next vacancy in the court, taking 
the counties in rotation. If the Chief Justice is interested in 
a suit before the court, then three Judges of the Quarter Ses- 
sions Court compose the court; and if a Judge of the Court 
of Quarter Sessions is interested in a suit, another Judge of 
a like court shall set in his place. The Supreme Court sets 
in Monrovia on the second Monday in January, annually, 
until the business of the court is finished. The salary of the 
Chief Justice is ^200 a year. The Judges of all the courts 
hold their office during good behaviour, but may be removed 
by the President, on the address of two-thirds of ^both houses 
for that purpose, or by impeachment and conviction thereof. 
The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction in cases affect- 
ing public ministers and consuls, and those to which a county 
is a party. It has appellate jurisdiction both as to law and 
fact, with the exceptions the Legislature shall make. 

The trial of mere fact is by a jury of twelve men, if re- 
quested by either party before a court, and the matter in dis- 
pute is over $20 in value. All mixed questions of law and 
fact is by a jury, under the direction and assistance of the 
court. To plead or prosecute as an attorney before any of 
the courts, a person must obtain a license to do so. The fee 
for a license is ^15. 

If any Liberian wishes to leave Liberia for the United 
States, or any part of the world, he obtains from the Secreta- 
ry of State, giving ten days notice of his intention to do so, 
a passport that states he is a citizen of Liberia. The notice 
is required to prevent any fraud by leaving the country se- 
cretly. It would be a good law in the United States. 

No man's property can be taken ii-om him for the public 
use without a just indemnification; and every person can em- 
ploy himself and his property in any honest business or pur- 
suit, though it be prejudicial, by way of rivalry or compe- 
tition, to another person. Every person that is injured, has 
his remedy therefor, by a due course of law; while every per- 
son charged with crime or misdemeanor has a right to a trial 



158 



LIBERIAj AS I FOUND IT. 



by jury, and to be heard in person or by cousel, or both: so 
that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, property, or 
privilege, but by the judgment of his. peers, or the laws of 
the Republic. The printing press is free to every person, to 
examine the proceedings of the Legislature, or any branch of 
government. All have the free communication of thoughts 
and opinions, by speech, by writing, and by printing the 
same, subject only to the abuse of their liberty. Each indi- 
vidual has the right to worship God according to the dictates 
of his own conscience, without obstruction or molestation 
from others. In short, the laws aim to establish this great 
principle in the Republic: "All men are born equally free 
and independent, and have certain natural, inherent and in- 
alienable rights; among which are the rights of enjoying and 
defending life and liberty, of acquiring, possessing and pro- 
tecting his property, and of pursuing and obtaining safety 
and happiness." No Liberian is allowed at any time to 
seize upon the property of a native without legal process, un- 
der the pretence that the said native is indebted to him. 
Such seizure is considered an act of robbery. Adultery, the 
seduction of a wife or daughter, and the breach of a con- 
tracf, engagement, or promise to marry, are injuries of a pe- 
culiar nature, and partake of a criminal character, and actions 
in regard to them partake of a criminal character. 

The militia of Liberia is thoroughly organized, consisting 
of four regiments. As we have stated in the progress of our 
visits to dilferent places, cannon, guns, powder and ball are 
kept constantly on hand in each county. The Commissary's 
Department is always prepared with a supply, in case of a 
war with the natives. Every able bodied male citizen, be- 
tween the ages of sixteen and fifty, except those exempted 
by law, is bound to do military duty. If the militia is called 
into active service, those serving in the ranks, have $8 per 
month, and a pint and a half of rice, and a half pound of 
beef, or something that is equivalent, per day. The officers, 
from the Corporal to the Brigadier General, have from $10 to 
$40 per month, with rations, as the office may be. The mi- 
litia of the Republic number about sixteen hundred and fifty. 

The laws in regard to slavery are very stringent. No 
citizen, or other person coming into or residing in the Repub- 
lic, can build, fit or equip, or own any vessel, or act as agent 
of any vessel, for the purpose of carrying on the slave trade, 
or abetting it in any way. Nor can any person, citizen or 
stranger, knowingly take on board, receive, or transport from 
one place to another, any African held as a slave, or intend- 
ed to be enslaved; nor can any citizen, or person residing in 
Liberia, go on board of a vessel to be employed, which is in 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



159 



the slave trade; nor can any citizen of the Republic volun- 
tarily serve on board of any foreign vessel employed in the 
slave trade; nor can any citizen, or other person residing in 
Liberia act as an agent, or enter into the employ or the ser- 
vice of any one acting or engaged in the slave trade; nor can 
any citizen of Liberia be found in the neighborhood of any 
slave establishment without being deemed guilty of an in- 
fraction of the laws of Liberia against the existence of slave- 
ry, without he can give good reasons for being so found. 
The penalty of the violation of these injunctions of the law 
is confinement, on conviction, for life, or a fine of $1,000, 
down to $500, as the character of the offense may be. The 
constitution of the Republic declares "there shall be no 
slavery within the Republic.'' It is morally impossible for a 
Liberian to own or hold in his possession a slave. What a 
Liberian may do by a secret communication with a native in 
the interior, in selling a slave, I do not know. But, if con- 
jecture is to be the basis of opinion, I do not know but it may 
be conjectured the devil is a black person. 

The laws enacted for the support and maintenance of aged 
widows, destitute orphans, poor persons and invalid poor, 
and all insane persons, destitute of support, are judicious 
and praisworthy; but, like unto other countries, are not fully 
carried out by the government. Poverty, or the too limited 
resources of the government, may be the reason there are no 
county poor houses, with the farms and different implements 
of work, as required by law. Some people do beg of their 
own color, and of strangers, in Liberia. And if it were said 
it is not so, then would be found a community the reverse of 
what God told Moses in regard to the Isrealites: "The poor 
shell never cease out of the land." 

I have alluded to the National Fair. This was a Legisla- 
tive movement. Five hundred dollars are appropriated, to 
be distributed annually as premiums. I arrived at Monrovia 
six days too late to witness the exhibition. From the pub- 
lished report of the awarding committee, I learn that premi- 
ums were granted for oxen, coffee, arrow root, cotton in its 
natural state, cotton ginned, African cotton cloth, sugar cane 
syrup, African leather, ginger, rice by Liberian labor, ground 
or pea nuts, corn, corn meal, starch from arrow root, and cassa- 
da, bar soap, tallow candles, palm oil made by Liberians, 
rams, ewes, heifers, bulls, sheep, swine, butter, different kinds 
of cabinet work, plows, great assortment of needle work, 
eddoes, sweet potatoes, and a due proportion of the fruits in 
their natural state, and in the state good house-wives know 
how to place them in a preserved state. The thermometer 
on board ship, at 7 P. M. was 82°. 



160 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



February 2. The thermometer, I was told, was, on ship- 
board, 82° at 7 A. M : for I went on shore very early in the 
morning to visit the college grounds with Ex-President Rob- 
erts, (President of the college) and to breakfast with him. 
After a pleasant long walk to examine the college arrange- 
ments, being made for the collegiate education of the 
youth of Liberia, and the culinary preparations for their phys- 
ical powers while attaining the education, I went to the Ex- 
President's large, well furnished house, and in proper time 
sat down to a breakfast table having on it coffee and tea, 
warm raised flour bread, corn batter cakes, beef steak, fried 
chicken, milk, butter and fried bananas. Was it not becoming 
in me to do justice to my knife and fork of the latest fashion, 
with such a breakfast before me, and after such a long walk 
as I had taken? It was a late hour, but it was a fashionable 
hour, after the English custom. The house gave evidence, 
in its furniture of rich English manufacture. I was much 
pleased with my social interview with the family. The hus- 
band and wife are bright mulattoes, especially the wife. I 
use the term with no disrespect. It is used to meet the often 
enquiry when speaking of persons in Liberia as to their 
standing, are they black or mulattoes? Our conversation re- 
minded me to insert in my journal (what I neglected to do in 
its proper place) the high school under the care of Rev. Mr. 
Day. It is the high school of the Baptist Missionary Socie- 
ty, South. It is located on the ground that makes a part of 
the false cape, and has a most excellent spring of water on 
its premises. It takes its name after its superintendent, and 
is called Day's Hope. It has a primary and classical depart- 
ment, and teaches male and female. 

Four points were before my mind to-day, for investigation: 
The means of the annual support of the Liberian Govern- 
ment — the population of Liberia — the ability of emigrants to 
have a good support in Liberia, and the character of the 
African fever. My object was to keep in view these points 
as I went through my daily visits on shore; but I wanted of- 
ficial evidence, as far as each of the points could be had, to 
sum up the whole matter before my mind's eye. 

The copy of the Secretary's Report to the President of Li- 
beria was made for the fiscal year from October 1, 1856, to 
September 30, 1857, inclusive. I copy it: 



LIBERIA, AS 1 FOUND IT. 



161 



REVENUE. 

From tariff duty direct, - - $5,988 60 
From anchorage & light-house 

duties, . - - - 627 79 

From tonage duty on Liberian 

vessels, - 174 50. 

From Inspector's fee, being half 

amount paid by masters of 

vessels, - _ . - 18 00 



eOASTWIS^J. 

From tariff duty, - - $21,628 30 

From tonage duty, - - 1,574 52 



EXPORT DUTY FOR THREE MONTHS ONLY. 

On 117,744 gallons palm oil, - $ 117 44 
On 31 tons, 17 cwt. 3 qrs. lbs. 

camvirood,val'd at $1,942 91, 41 47 
On 432 lbs. of ivory, valued at 

$326 24, - - - - 6 52 
On 10 casks Malagetta pepper, 

valued at $231 50, - - 4 63 
On 300 bushels palm kernels, 

valued at $100 00, - - 2 00 

On specie, valued at $864 04, 43 19 

On 1 bushel potatoes, - - 02 



$6,808 89 



23,202 84 



$30,011 71 



$ 1,275 28 



INCLUDED IN COLLECTOR S ACCOUNT CURRENT, PORT 
OF HARPER, WITH REVENUE. 

Retail license, - - - $ 17 00 

Commission license, - - 7 50 

Auctioneer's license, - - 2 80 
Postage on letters per Collector, 

Grand Bassa, - - - 8 97 26 27 



$31,323 26 

RECEIPTS FROM OTHER SOURCES. 

From deposits, - - - $1,004 11 
From estates, . . - 1^298 80 
From sheriff, - - - - 250 20 



Amounts carried forvi^ard, 
11 



$2,553 11 



$31,323 26 



162 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



Amounts brought forward, $2,553 11 $31,323 26 

OProm Superintendent of Grand 

Bassa, - . - - 59 65 

From Justice of Peace, - - 28 55 

From Clerk of the Court, - 2 00 

From Marshal, Grand Bassa, 125 26 

From sale of public lands, - 1,003 95 

From Constables, - - - 41 92 

From retail licenses, - - 204 87 

From commission licenses, - 30 00 

From attorney licenses, - - 30 00 

From auctioneers' licenses, - 12 00 

From postage on letters, - 31 24 

From survey of lands, - - 130 80 

From subscription to Liberia 

Herald, .... 2 00 

From sale of native plunder, 

Maryland county, - - 42 10 

From sale of sundry articles, - 1,550 73 

From fines, military and civil, 126 05 

From 317 compiled Statutes, - 634 00 

From copper coin, ... 727 43 

From James Hall, M. D., Bal- 
timore, .... 5,000 00 

From engraved bills issued, - 3,053 00 

From other sources, - - 844 48 

16,233 15 



Total amount of revenue and receipts, $47,556 42 

DISBURSEMENTS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPT. 30, 1857. 

For Government schooner Lark, - - - $ 5,598 58 

For expedition to Sinoe, .... 4,319 78 

For expedition to Cape Palmas, - - - 4,464 01 

For settlement at Grand Cape Mount, - - 423 49 

For settlement at Careysburg, ... 69 65 

For repairs of public buildings, ... 1,083 84 
For light-house, Monrovia, - - $337 34 
For light-house. Harper, - - 82 37 

419 71 

For Liberia Herald oflice, - - - - 411 78 
For Executive, Treasury, State, Superinten- 
dent's, Collector's and Register's Depart- 
ment's, 455 49 

For Legislature, ------ 5,090 55 



Amount carried forward, - - - $22,336 88 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



163 



Amount brought forward, - - - |S22,336 88 
For Sinoe county, for the sufferers, $30 68 
For Maryland co., for the sufferers, 340 50 

371 18 



For civil list, including Treasurer, Sub-Treas- 
urer, Collectors, and Land Commissioner's 
commissions, 8,359 61 

For Collector's fee, 40 01 

For Inspector's fee, direct, - - $171 50 

For Inspector's fee, coastwise, - 14 28 



1,599 50 

For Judiciary, - - - - - - 6,120 17 

For elections, ------ 172 38 

For pensions, 176 75 

For interest, ------ 99 67 

For deposits, ------ 237 50 

For estates, 438 33 

For corporation authorities, - - - 930 90 

For military, - 607 87 

For contingents, ----- 4,965 13 

For profit and loss, 518 32 

For balance in favor of late Sub-Treasurer, 

in Sinoe, 74 19 



Total amount of disbursments, - - §47,048 43 



To this report, the Clerk of the President added at the bot- 
tom, at my request, receipts of preceding year $42,644 44. 

It will be seen what are the reliable sources of income, 
and what are the regular annual disbursements. The report 
does not state the amount the Government has issued before 
1856-7, of its paper, and is liable for; nor the amount she has 
received prior to 1856-7, on deposit for individuals and es- 
tates, that she is also liable for. The law requiring export 
duties did not go into operation until the last quarter of the 
year 1856-7. 

It is plain that her national support is depending on the 
labor of the natives. Can the Liberian Government take 
the trade with the natives in her own hands by her own citi- 
zens, and make it more reliable in amount to herself, and to 
the benefit of the natives? If that is not desii-able nor prac- 
tical, then the revenue from that source is not reliable in its 
amount year after year, while the expenses of the Govern- 
ment are certain year after year. The increase of the bush- 
els of cassada, sweet potatoes, and eddoes, may guard against 
the occurrence of ^the scarcity of provisions as in 1856, but 
they will not give a?e venue to the Government for its expen- 



164 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



ses. The Liberian Government receives no revenue by tax- 
ing her citizens. She can pass no laws and enforce them on 
the tribes within her territorial limits, that will bring in a 
revenue from their labor. She reaches them only by the 
coastwise trade that is carried on chiefly by foreigners. Oth- 
er portions on the west coast are opening to the foreigner 
for their goods, where no revenue laws are in operation. A 
proposition is discussed to allow the English nation to im- 
port goods of British manufacture for the space of ten years 
jree of duty, in consideration that England will pay annually 
$100,000 for that length of time for the privilege. Is the 
Liberian schooner Lark able to prevent vessels of other 
nations from trading at the native points without first en- 
tering her port of entry, and taking out licenses to trade 
down the coast? Or, is England, at the mouth of her can- 
non, to drive off from the coasts, those who will huy of the 
natives, "scott free" of duty ! The fact is, there is a difficul- 
ty to be met in securing a reliable annual revenue to Libe- 
ria, and the reader can judge whether the paw of the Lion 
can remedy it by its foothold on the Liberian finances. The 
imports in Liberia in the fiscal year, ending Sept. 1843, were 
$63,269 29 — and the exports the same year, amounted to 
$54,643 75. The imports exceeded the exports that year 
$8,625 57. It will be borne in mind, this year was before the 
independence of Liberia, and that the Missionary Societies, 
and the Colonization Society made remittances of money to 
pay the ministers salaries, school teachers salaries, and the 
expenses of the officers of the Government and of her agents 
to attend to the acclimation of the immigrants. 

The Secretary of the Treasury reported for the year, end- 
ing Sept. 1851 : 

Duties on imports, . . . _ $13,294 35 

Sales of public lands, . - . - 978 oo 



In all, 

Legislature, 
Civil list, 
.Tudiciary, 
Naval, 

Public buildings, - 



DISBURSEMENTS. 



$ 14,272 35 



$1,366 71 
5,942 12 
1,407 99 
5,281 25 
1,708 90 



Whole amount, $ 15,706 97 

Disbursements exceeded receipts $1,434 62. 
The population of Liberia is an important item of infor- 
mation, in the judgment of the reader. I regretted very much 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



165 



that I could not obtain the statistical information that the 
Legislature of Liberia designed should have been taken in 
1854. The returns embraced the counties of Mesurado, Grand 
Bassa, and Sinoe. In 1854, the Maryland county was not 
attached to the Liberian Government. The census returns 
from Bassa and Sinoe, were considered incorrect, and they 
were not, for that reason, placed in my hands to examine. 
I was also disappointed in not finding in the Clerk's Office 
in Monrovia, the returns required by law of the births and 
deaths that occur each year in the county of Mesurado. The 
reader will see I obtained this official information in the oth- 
er three counties in Liberia. I hope I shall not do any in- 
justice to Liberia in my statements in regard to her popula- 
tion. I wish to bring up the past history of her population^ 
to furnish the reader with information to judge of Liberia in 
this particular in a fair light. 

The census of Liberia for 1843, inclusive, states that from 
1820 to 1844, there had been sent to Liberia, 4,454 emigrants 
from the United States. Of this number, 520 left Liberia 
for the United States, and other countries, leaving 3,934 to 
dwell in Liberia. Ot this number, viz : 3,934, 874 died by 
the acclimating fever. This showns a loss of twenty-two 
and one fifth per cent. Of the 3,060 who acclimated, 1,324 
died in twenty -four years, viz: up to 1844, by age, war, dis- 
ease, and other causes. It is due, if I may so state, to the 
African fever, and also to the physicians of Liberia, to men- 
tion, that of the number of emigrants sent to Liberia, 363 
were over fifty-five years old, and 285 of the 363 were over 
sixty years of age. Up to 1844, there had died 2,198 by 
fever and other causes, leaving in that year, viz : 1844, 1,736 
living of the original settlers. The difference between the 
living and the dead, in twenty-four years, was 462 in favor of 
the dead. This statement includes no births during these 
years. But the census of 1844, tells us that there were at 
that time 645 children born in Liberia. By adding these 
living children to the living settlers, we find the living ex- 
ceeded the deaths by 183; and that the whole Liberian popu- 
lation in 1844, was 2,381. From 1844 to 1858, fourteen 
years, it is very probable that four per cent, of this 2,381 
died, each of the fourteen years. As we will not allow for 
a child to be born of this 2,381 persons for fourteen years, 
certainly four per cent, is a great allowance. According to 
this allowance, there was, up to January, 1858, 1,038 deaths 
of the 2,381 persons, which would leave at that time 1,343 
living. Subtracting this number, 1,343 from 3,934, the ori- 
ginal settlers in Liberia from the years 1820 to 1858, (a peri- 
od of thirty-eight years,) there has been 2,591 deaths. From 



166 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



1844 to 1858, there have been sent to Liberia from the United 
States, 5,4S2 emigrants. Allowing that 300 of this number 
returned to the United States, or went to some other coun- 
tries, we have 5,132 who settled in"Liberia. If we add the 
1,343, who were living January, 1858, of the emigrants, and 
their children, who were sent to Liberia prior to 1844; there 
ought to be in Liberia in January, 1858, 6,475, barring 
deaths on the one hand, and not claiming any births on the 
other hand. My statements of the population in the counties 
of Mesurado, Bassa, and Sinoe, make the number in Jan. 
1858,6,671. A census to-day, I do not believe, will differ 
from this number, 100 more or less. The difference between 
what ought to be, and what is, is 196 more than is called for. 
That deaths by " the fever," and deaths by disease, war, age 
and casualties, have taken off, during the fourteen years, 
many of the 6,475, we cannot doubt. Nor can we disbelieve 
that by births in Liberia, there has been made such addi- 
tions, that in the fourteen years, those births make the ag- 
gregate of the present population 196 more than the origin- 
al stock, which is considered in this calculation as not having 
lost one of its number by death in the fourteen years. My 
impressions are, that in the next fourteen years, the showing 
of population will be more favorable for Liberia. 1. There 
will be better arrangements made for the acclimation of emi- 
grants. 2. The settlements will be in a more improved state 
to reside in. 3. There will be a more watchful notice as to 
the best time for emigrants to go to Liberia. 4. The physi- 
cians of Liberia will be in advance in their medical science. 
As Maryland county is now a portion of the Republic of Li- 
beria, it is proper to refer to her population. As I have sta- 
ted, the number of emigrants sent to that colony, as given 
to me by Dr. Hall, the General Agent of the Maryland So- 
ciety, is 1,300, My estimate of the Maryland county was 
semi-officially, and from my own enquiries, 950 inhabitants. 
This makes a loss in that county of 350. By adding 950 to 
the population in the other counties, we have 7,621 as the 
population of the Republic in 1858. No native is included 
in this statement. The American Society has sent out in all 
up to January, 1858, 9,872. The Maryland Society, 1,300— 
by both societies, 11,172. After thirty-eight years, of this 
number with their offspring, 7,621 are living, leaving for 
deaths 3,551, which is 33 per cent, loss by death. I do not 
think that Liberia, and the friends of African Colonization 
need be ashamed to tell these facts "in Gath," nor to publish 
them "in the streets of Askalon." Certainly the reader will 
contrast the loss of life in the settlement of Liberia for thirty- 
eight years with a similar loss of a similar number of per- 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



167 



sons in the same length of time settling in a new foreign 
country. We have data by which such comparisons can be 
made. Of the whole number sent to Liberia by the x\meri- 
can Society, 3,730 were free born, 5,816 were emancipated 
slaves, and 326 bought their freedom. Of the number of free 
persons, 707 were from the free states, and 3,023 were from 
the slave states. 

The ability of emigrants to have a good support in Libe- 
ria. This point should be looked at in two aspects. 1. The 
improved condition of Liberia for the last fourteen years. 2. 
What an emigrant can have for his support. 

1. The improved condition of Liberia for the last fourteen 
years. The census of Liberia, for 1844, gave for the counties 
of Mesurado, Bassa and Sinoe,948 acres in cultivation of dif- 
erent products, as corn, cane, rice, &c. The Register's report 
to me for Mesurado county, up to January, 1858, had 1,250 
acres in cultivation. In Bassa and Sinoe counties, from ex- 
amination and inquiries, 1,200 acres can be put down as cul- 
tivated. This makes an increase in the cultivated acres, in 
fourteen years, of 1,500 acres. In 1844 the number of acres 
owned in the three counties was 2,100. In 1858 the number 
of acres owned in the same counties was 6,440, which does 
not include purchased land nor bounty land; while in the 
report of 1844 one tract of 570 acres is included in the 2,100 
acres reported. This shows an increase in land drawn by 
settlers in fourteen years of 4,340 acres. In 1844 there were 
in Mesurado county 6,345 coffee trees; in Bassa county 14,- 
435, and in Sinoe county 250 — in all 21,030 coffee trees. In 
1854 there were reported in Mesurado county 34,202 coffee 
trees; Bassa can be safely put down at 25,000, and Sinoe at 
12,000— in all 71,202; a gain in fourteen years of 50,172 
trees. In 1844 in the three counties there were 71 head of 
cattle, 214 sheep and goats, and 285 swine. In 1854 the 
census of Mesurado county reported 162 head of cattle, 327 
sheep and goats, and 353 swine. In 1858 I report for Bassa 
60 head of cattle, and a number of sheep and goats and 
swine. For Sinoe I report 50 head of cattle, and likewise 
sheep, goats, and swine, notwithstanding the wars in the two 
counties that had destroyed many that the people had. Here 
is a good increase in stock in fourteen years. In 1844 the 
real and personal property of mei-chants and tradesmen in 
the three counties was estimated at $98,300. Many of those 
merchants are dead. But in Monrovia four merchants can 
be found whose property will cover the whole assessment of 
1844. There can be no question that Liberia is very far 
ahead now of what she was in 1844. 

2. What an emigrant can have for his support in Liberia. 
It is due to Liberia to state what she will do for an industri- 



168 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



ous settler on her soil. He arrives in Liberia with his family 
with $200. During his first week's residence in the Recep- 
tacle he makes a selection of his ten acres of land, and gets 
his certificate for it. Me buys a yoke of cattle for $35 00, 
and with his family force he commences to clear an acre of 
land. In three weeks he has burnt off the wood, and with 
an outlay of $20 00 he has the acre cleared and a house put 
up that will answer his purpose until he is better able to put 
up a better building. During this month he has boarded with 
his family in the Receptacle. And during this time his fam- 
ily has planted corn, cassada, sweet potatoes, yams, beans, 
peas, cabbage, eddoes, and mellons of different kinds, in 
their due proportion; and they have placed here and there, 
near to the house, a few plantains, bananas, chiotes, paw- 
paw, granadilla, and sour sop cions, with two cions each of 
mango plum, orange and ocra. He moves into his house, 
and draws rations for himself and family for each week for 
five months to come, to be cooked by his family or used as he 
shall judge best. What he does want he eats ; what he does 
not want he sells, or barters for what he wants, whether it 
be work or articles of Liberian growth. He puts on his 
place hens to furnish him in due time with eggs and chick- 
ens, and a sow that will present him in due time with a lit- 
ter of pigs. His outlay for these articles is $6 00. His oxen 
have found their own food. Should the husband have died, 
(for we want to look at the matter in all its forms,) then the 
wife and children have a house to live in, and the benefit of 
the work so far, and the means on hand to prepare for the 
future. During the second month he clears two more acres 
of land, and puts around his land a rail fence, and with a 
cross fence divides his cleared land from his wood land. If 
he has no running water on his land $15 00 will dig him a 
well and stone it up. For $25 he gets 320 young coffee 
trees, and puts them out fifteen feet apart on an acre that 
has been well plowed for the purpose. Between these rows 
he has a row of cassada, corn, yams, arrow root and ginger, 
planted alternately, while on his other new cleared acre he 
has an half acre of it in sugar cane, which will occupy that 
ground for four years. The other half acre he divides it, if 
he pleases, between ginger and arrow root. A cow would 
be desirable for the family ai $15 00. Here and there let 
him plant cotton seed, that the shrub may yield him cotton 
for four to five years, for stockings for the family. He eats 
this month of his cabbage, beans, peas, and mellons; and 
what he does not consume of his rations he can sell for inci- 
dental expenses, as the sharpening his plow, &c. For lee 
way let him set apart $10 for extra unforseen expenses. In 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



169 



the third month he clears two more acres of land to enlarge 
his coffee orchard. He eats this month of his sweet pota- 
toes, his beans, peas and mellons, and puts out the young 
palm tree in different parts of the land that is not set out 
with coffee trees. He has bartered away some of his rations 
for work, or for cassada and eddoes. In the fourth month he 
puts out another acre in coffee trees at an expense of $25 00, 
and between the rows let him plant arrow root, ginger and 
pea nuts, alternately. On the other acre let him increase 
his cassada, yams and sweet potatoes. He will move his 
fence back. He eats this month sweet potatoes, corn, green 
plaintain in its boiled state, beans and peas, while he dis- 
poses of some of his weekly rations. In the fifth month he 
clears two acres of land, and plows it for coffee trees. Fifty 
dollars should be laid out for the trees on these two acres. 
His rations that he does not want can be sold to pay for 
helping him to put them out. He eats this month a chicken, 
if he pleases, yams, sweet potatoes, eddoes, pawpaw, mel- 
lons, beans, peas and plantain boiled. Let him move his di- 
viding fence back. In the sixth month he clears all his 
wood land, except a quarter of an acre, which quarter of an 
acre has its underbrush kept down ; and he has three acres 
under fence for his oxen and cow. He eats this month of 
his eddoes, yams, potatoes, granadilla, chiotes, beans, cab- 
bage, plantain, banana, and pawpaw. It will be borne in 
mind the family has had meat every day for the six months. 
He commences the seventh month with vegetables to sell of 
different kinds, and learns a little of self-denial in the meat 
line. In the eighth month he uses his cassada, and now need 
not ever be without it, nor of his other roots or vines. His 
ginger, and arrow root and ground nuts he has for sale, and 
can make his arrangements, which he should by all means 
do, to have the articles to sell every year. It will be borne in 
mind that fish can be had from the rivers and creeks. Good 
cultivation of the soil, between the coffee trees, will give to 
the owner, in the third year of his residence, three pounds to 
the tree, which, at eight cents a pound, is $307 20. Every 
year, under that good cultivation, increases the yield of the 
tree. Does a tree yield eight pounds a year? Then the in- 
come of the four acres, at eight cents a pound, is $819 20, less 
the expense of picking and getting it ready for market. 
This is not fancy farming. It is not paper agriculture. What 
would such an amount of labor be for a German landed on 
our shores in six months? He would do the work with his 
spade, and it would look like a garden spot. A Liberian that 
will be industrious with the facilities given to him, as I have 
stated, can do the work in the African climate. I would re- 



170 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



mind the reader of what the North Carolina woman did at 
Cape Mount if he be in doubt. This subject of agriculture 
in Liberia has been my study. I say this that it may not be 
considered by the reader as a visionary expose. As to the 
arrangement of the articles I have stated, some of the roots 
will grow at all seasons; but when the settler is in a condi- 
tion to meet his annual expenses he can plant according to 
time and seasons, and get, in some of the articles, a better 
yield. The outfit should embrace, besides two years of cloth- 
ing, and crockery, and bedding, cotton cards, axe, hoe, frow, 
drawing knife, bush sythe, bill hook, spade, hatchet, hand- 
saw, gimblets, augers, chissels, wedge, grubbing hoe, pinch- 
ers, nails, corn mill, (price $5 00,) ox chain, and plow, with 
some fifteen pounds of Swedes iron. This outfit will amount 
(except the clothing) to $60 00, in proportion to the number 
in family that will require axes and hoes. The passage and 
six months support by the American Society will depend on 
the age and number in the family. A single man, or single 
woman, should have beside an outfit: for the man $100; for 
the woman $75. But I would not advise an unmarried wo- 
man, or widow, without children to aid her, to go to Liberia, 
if she has no practice in cutting and making up garments for 
both or either of the sexes, without means for her support. 
If she has connexions going there with whom she can live, 
her money could be so placed as to be of service to her there. 
In case there is no money, if it be a slave to be emancipated 
to go, let him or her be hired out for three years to raise the 
money for the removal and settlement in Liberia. Industry 
can make amends for the want of money, but it takes a long- 
er time to make the start. Isaac Overton, to whom I have 
alluded, is an instance of what can be done, even when not 
apparently well calculated, as seen here, to go to Liberia. 

I would, in this place, remark that Liberia has cost the 
friends of colonization about $1,500,000. This sum covers 
the purchase of territory, the transportation of emigrants, 
their provision for the voyage, and six months support, the 
expenses attending their acclimation, the support of Liberia 
while a colony, and the various expenses attending the rais- 
ing of funds, and superintending the whole operations of the 
cause. I am of the opinion, in looking at the condition of 
Liberia, and its future value to the black race, she has repaid 
the money and the loss of life, by being a Republic, in living 
operation, on the Western Coast of Africa. 

There is a fever in Liberia that is rightly named. The 
African fever. It is confined to new emigrants to Liberia. 
It comes to almost every emigrant soon after his arrival in 
his abode on shore. A few, very few have lived there, and 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. M¥- 

never had it. It comes to prepare the emigrant to live in 
Liberia. Many have died under its operation. It attacks 
persons differently. Some are much prostrated, and speedi- 
ly recover, having good health, the year in, and the year out. 
Others are not so much prostrated, but are left to time to 
revive, and regain their health, which is obtained. To others 
it w^ould occasionally return from undue exercise, or expo- 
sure, or eating, and debilitate them, but not prostrate them. 
Some for the space of twelve and eighteen months, would 
now and then, have a chill, take some medicine, and the 
chill would not return again for weeks. I observed some 
married women, blacks and mulattoes, who were much de- 
bilitated, and yet would move about attending to their do- 
mestic affairs. No doubt many emigrants who have come 
here and died, would have died at home by the diseases that 
they had contracted before leaving for Liberia. Still there 
are secondary causes that have aided the fever to take ofT 
many of the emigrants: Such as the natural unhealthiness 
of the towns they were placed in to acclimate; the unsuita- 
bleness of the houses they lived in, in the time of acclima- 
tion; the inexperience of the physicians in treating the per- 
sons when sick: the long indulgence of bad habits on the 
human system, the indulgence of the appetite by improper 
food; the predisposition to fatal diseases before arriving in 
Liberia; unwillingness to follow the advice of nurses, and 
the unwillingness to take the medicines prescribed by the 
physicians, and infirmity and age. Many have died in Libe- 
ria who acclimated, but lived in settlements where there are 
no physicians, and when taken sick died from having nothing 
done to check their sickness. Many have died in Liberia 
from diseased lungs, a diseased brain, and anasarca, a spe- 
cies of pleurisy. I requested three of the physicians to give 
me a statement in regard to the character of the African fe- 
ver, and its treatment by them. Their opinion was furnished 
to me in writing. And as there is no discrepancy in their opin- 
ions, I will give the opinion of one of them, because it is the 
most minute description of it. " Attacks of African fever 
generally commence about the third week after landing, and 
are ushered in by a general feeling of lassitude, pain in the 
head and limbs; sometimes pain in the back, and a general 
feeling of soreness of body. The skin is dry and hot; the 
tongue furred, pulse rapid, and the patient complains of 
great thirst; he is more or less restless, according to the 
height of the fever, and the extent of the vexehal obstruc- 
tions. If the patient has enjo;yed tolerable good health, be- 
fore arriving, and his constitution be unimpaired by age or 
hard labor, he has not much to fear from the fever. With 



172 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



active treatment he generally finds relief in 24 or 36 hours. 
If the fever be of a continued type, it may run until the sev- 
enth or ninth day, M^ith scarce an intermission. This is how- 
ever comparatively rare. It is most generally intermitting in 
its character, and the patient is liable to frequent attacks 
during the first four or five months, when they gradually be- 
come less frequent. At the expiration of one or two years, 
he is left comparatively free from their influence, and may be 
considered as acclimated. To this general description there 
are of course exceptions, some having scarcely any fever, or 
escape it altogether. Others will have it in its worst forms of 
billious remittent, or congestive. Not a few suff'er from ir- 
regularities of the system. Want of proper nourishment, 
exposure, imprudence in eating, and indolence, are among 
the predisposing causes. Persons of a phlegmatic tempera- 
ment most frequently become its subjects. Physically pre- 
disposed to inactivity, they readily sink into despondency. 
The nervous system loses its tone. The pores of the skin 
ceasing to perform their functions properly, the vital organs 
have an undue weight thrown upon them; they take an en- 
largement, or become structurally diseased; dropsical symp- 
toms ensue, and the case becomes a critical one. With fe- 
males, this same train of causes acting upon the uterine func- 
tions, they become sympathetically affected, so as to prevent 
the possibility of their bearing children while under its in- 
fluence. 

"Treatment. — If the attack be mild in its character, calo- 
mel in doses of from two to four grains, in syrup, or mucilage, 
given at intervals of three hours, for six or twelve hours, 
followed with castor oil, combined with a few drops of spirits 
of turpentine, will generally relieve the system, and prepare 
the way for the administration of tonics, which should be 
administered as soon as the intestinal canal is discharged of 
its contents. Sulphate of quinine in doses of three grains, 
should be given once in three hours, either in mucilage 
water, or in solution of water with sulphuric acid. This 
should be followed for three or four days. The patient then 
becoming convalescent, the quinine may be less often given, 
but should be continued until after the tenth day. Cool 
drinks should be fully allowed. Snake root decoction has a 
beneficial effect as a febrifuge, if freely used. The leaves 
of the native plant called "fever weed," also, when used in 
decoction, forms a pleasant and cooling drink. 

" In congestive, or billious remittent, the treatment varies, 
and is more active, as the violence of the disease renders it 
the more critical. In the exacerbations of the fever, which 
generally come on towards night, small doses of Dover's or 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUKD IT. 



173 



James' Powders, given at intervals of two or three hours, wili 
generally afford relief. When there is great heat, and dry- 
ness of the skin, the surface should be spunged with cold 
water, the sensation is most grateful to the patient, and the 
relief is almost instantaneous. While it is important that the 
bowels should be evacuated once in the twenty-four hours, it 
is equally important that too loose a condition should be 
carelully guarded against. In tropical climates dysenteric 
symptoms are particularly to be dreaded. In case of their 
supervention, diluted sulphuric acid forms the most reliable 
remedy. Ague and chills do not, as a general rule, accom- 
pany the first attack of fever, but commence usually after 
the second or third attack, and are generally tertian in form', 
approaching the quarton, as they lessen in fequency. The 
faithful administration of sulphate of quinine seldom fails to 
break up the periodicity of their attacks, and thoroughly 
brace the system against their influence. 

"Diet should be w^holesome and nourishing. Salt food 
should be avoided, and also fruits and fish. Stimulants and 
tonics, as brandy and ale, are generally needed during con- 
valescence and low stages of the fever. 

"To persons emigrating to Liberia, the rainy season seems 
to be the most favorable for passing through the fever. The 
heat being less oppressive, there is le&s constitutional debili- 
ty, and they consequently rally the more easily from their 
successive attacks." 

The best time for emigrants to arrive in Liberia, should be 
well considered by physicians in Liberia^ and by agents that 
have in charge the time of sailing of the ship from the U. 
States to Liberia. It is a point of too great importance for 
two or three to decide. All new light should be had that 
can be brought to bear on the subject. Health has not been 
wantonly trifled with in days gone by; but I most candidly 
say, it has not received all that care and oversight that its 
protection requires. As to the time of arriving in Liberia 
to acclimate, I give no opinion of my own. 

Febimary 3. Thermometer at 7 A. M. 82o. The Captain of 
the ship gave notice that he would leave Monrovia for Cape 
Mount to-day. I went on shore to bid farewell to tha ac- 
quaintances I had formed here. We parted with mutual de- 
sires to Him who reigns in wisdom and goodness, for his 
blessing and care, for those residing in Liberia, and for my- 
self on the passage to my home. I went on board of the ship^ 
and we weighed anchor for Cape Mount. Thermometer at 
7 P. M. 820. 

February 4. Thermometer at 7 A. M. 82°. The wind was 
light, and still gives us but little aid on our way. At 11 A. 



174 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



M. Cape Mount was seen, and at 5 P. M., we anchored off 
Robertsport. This is our last anchorage until we reach the 
United States, if prospered by Him who "holds the winds in 
his fists." Thermometer at 7 P. M. 82°. 

February 5. Thermometer at 7 A. M. 80°. It rained very 
hard about 4 A. M. The sun came out at 9 A. M. I went 
onshore, and learnt that the emigrants we landed here had 
not been sick, and all were well. I learnt a surveyor had 
been here from Monrovia, and had returned back, without 
laying off any farm lots. I felt it to be my duty to the emi- 
grants who had not drawn town lots, to advise them not to do 
so, but at the end of the six months they were to be provided 
for, if no farm land was laid off for them to draw, to leave 
the place, and go up the St. Paul's river, and draw their 
land. I returned to the ship at 2 P. M., and soon the anchor 
was weighed to sail for the United States. We took on 
board at Cape Mount, two of the emigrants we brought out, 
to return to Virginia, where they went from, they not wish- 
ing to stay in Liberia. Another resident of the place, a 
member of the family I referred to in my journal, returned to 
the United States. They all paid their passage back to the 
United States. 

I gazed at the land from the quarter deck of the ship, as 
we sailed away from it, with mingled feelings of hope, grati- 
fication, and fear. I had seen the country I had long desir- 
ed to know by personal observation. 1 had seen the emi- 
grants themselves, and their condition. Where I went, and 
wk(d I saw, 1 have stated. I have made the statements with 
minuteness in connection with the settlements, and the people 
in thein, that the reader may know definitely what to judge. 
1 have aimed to meet the wants of masters desiring to free 
their servants, that they may decide whether Liberia is a 
suitable home for them. In seeking for this information, I 
knew 1 should give information that the servants would want 
to elect to go there; while the free blacks, who are daily 
feeling a civil pressure upon them in regard to their enjoy- 
ment of political rights in this land, could learn how they 
could better their condition, by going to Liberia. I now take 
the liberty to present my own reflections on the whole mat- 
ter. 1 will not put down one thought in malice, or contempt, 
or haste. The reader can form his own conclusions, which 
I hope will accord with mine. 

REFLECTIONS. 
I. Liberia is the only free black Republic in the world. 
It spreads over its citizens a constitution that gives to them 
equal rights, and sustains common school education, and re- 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



175 



cognizes the impress of Christianity by an open bible to them. 
It is in possession of every material to make it a wise, pros- 
perous, rich, strong, populous, moral and christian nation, of 
one homogeneous people. Her accessions of citizens from 
abroad must be by the law of climate of their own distinct 
branch of the human family ; and they must be moved by the 
same considerations to make it their home that influence 
every present settler to cast his lot there. And every native 
within her territorial jurisdiction, who embraces Christianity, 
will most naturally become its citizen, and will kindly and 
readily coalesce as a citizen of the one great common coun- 
try of his race. All will be of one blood, one religion, and 
one intent in being a nation. It is settled in this the day of 
the infancy of the Republic that it never can be possessed by 
another race of people. It is therefore a great reservoir opened 
up to the scattered Africans who are free from human bond- 
age, to gather and have a name that is above every name, 
that is now by common parlance attached to them. 

The civil government is adapted to the habits of her pre- 
sent citizens, and those who shall seek citizenship there. 
Their habits and associations revolt against a monarchical 
government — a one black man power. The laws meet the 
social, moral, and political interests of this race of people. 
In the commencement of their civil life they meet with in- 
fluences that radically remove old established and long prac- 
ticed customs, adapted to, and growing out of the relations 
they sustain while living in the United States. Every new 
comer discovers on his landing in Liberia this is the free 
country I had had stated to me before I left the United* 
States. Cast cannot exist there, but that which grows out of 
wealth. And this will always be limited to a few, and be as 
transitory as the stay of an eagle on the towering oak, which 
soon takes wings and flies away. It is a position that this 
year's poor may occupy by prosperity the next year. There 
is no entailment of property, nor title, nor standing of fami- 
lies there. Every man is the maker of his own position in 
society. There is no black, nor mulatto; no free born, nor 
emancipated slave; no north or south of Mason and Dixon's 
line as to the election of office, civil, political, or ecclesiasti- 
cal. Fitness for the station is the point to be known. 

2. Liberia is in her infancy in government and internal re- 
sources for national support. Some of her men have been 
educated in the United States; but she has many other men 
who take an active part in giving a forming and permanent 
character to her civil and political institutions. These men 
are self-educated men in Liberia. They are, it is true, novices 
in their national knowledge and civil practice; but they have 



176 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



shown they are men of discretion, of good judgment, and 
men who feel their responsibility to their country. As they 
find themselves deficient in knowledge of national affairs, 
they apply themselves to the study of those branches of it 
that their respective minds desire to know for the good of the 
Republic. This practice enables them to meet the exigen- 
cies of the nation as they occur. More talent will be yearly 
developed, as more demands shall be made on increased 
well-informed intellects, through her schools of learning. 
The advances made by Liberia are proofs of what I state. 
It is true there are those who have aptness of speech, with 
the bow and smile that commends a candidate for office to 
many voters; but I hope there is sufficient good common sense 
among the people to keep that class in abeyance as to their 
ruling the land. Still the prayer is needed there, that is very 
necessary in the United States: O, God, "give her counsel- 
lors wisdom and her exactors righteousness." 

3. The soil of Liberia can lurnish an abundance of food, 
and valuable productions to any amount of settlers. She can, 
without war, enlarge her territorial possessions back from the 
coast, and get nearer to natives more agricultural in their 
pursuits than those are who are living within her present 
limits. That the great body of the Liberians eat every day 
animal food, I do not believe; nor do I believe that those now 
living on town lots, with no other land to cultivate, and depend- 
ing on the productions of those lots, can raise enough to buy 
salt or fresh provisions for their daily wants. But this is not 
the fault of the country. It is the result of the policy of the 
people in making their settlements. It is my opinion that 
four thousand ot the population of Liberia are living on 
quarter acre lots. The proportion of this number, who are 
merchants and mechanics, is comparatively so small that we 
are constrained to say that the majority of the people, by 
their own act, or the policy of the government, (shall the 
American Society bear its part?) have placed themselves in 
a position that their comfort and wealth on the one hand, and 
the growth and strength of Liberia on the other hand, did 
not require. And as to the balance of the population, three 
thousand six hundred and twenty-one, they are on farm land, 
farming with the hoe and bill hook, on an average of three 
to four acres to each farm. Why there is not an abundance 
of meat, and to spare, is to be learnt from this statement. 
Of course there are some there who write home and ask for 
bacon and flour to be sent to them; but we repeat it, the fault 
lies not on the soil and water of Liberia. It is my deliberate 
opinion that Liberia can give an industrious emigrant, before 
the close of his first year's residence, a fair commencement 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



177 



to have animal food as his diet, as any other new country fur- 
nishes to her new settlers; and his ability will increase every 
year to have it, as he and his family shall need it. If it be 
not so with him, he is lazy, or lacks in judgment in man- 
aging his time and his means, or a numerous family cripples 
his efforts. So far as the country is concerned, she can re- 
ceive five thousand industrious emigrants a year, and give to 
them good land on which they can establish good homes — 
land where they can acclimate with fair prospects of going 
through the trial of the African fever. Other places can be 
opened up, and be ready for the occupancy of other emi- 
grants. The question is not, is the land capable of giving 
such a number of industrious emigrants a good support and 
a pleasant home? The questions are, is the American Soci- 
ety able to command means to get such a number to Liberia 
in a year, and support them the six months after their arrival 
there, and properly locate them in buildings suitable to ac- 
climate? and is there no danger that Liberia might possibly 
feel too great a pressure of such a number annually on her 
polls to keep the helm of State in the hands of her old ex- 
perienced citizens? These are the questions to decide on the 
policy of such an yearly emigration. There is no lack of 
medical aid to be distributed to meet the emigrants in their 
acclimating process. They have now the medical library in 
Liberia which was given by the late Dr. Kitteridge, of New 
Hampshire; and another medical library of the late Dr. John 
Allen, of Shelby county, Ky., is to be sent to Liberia. We 
have stated what an industrious emigrant can have at the 
close of his first year's residence, and what the years follow- 
ing. Can the civilized world be annually glutted with gin- 
ger, arrow root, ground nuts and indigo? Can the coffee tree 
fail to bring its annual yield for exportation? Can the palm 
nut be gathered as the stones of the streets, to make the oil 
that all the world will buy? Can the camwood be gathered 
from the forests by the axe, for the same world to have the best 
red dye-wood it can have? Let only these enumerated ar- 
ticles receive the influence of industry, guided by judgment 
in the use of beasts of burden, proper tools and machinery, 
and what an exporting country Liberia can be? Let her rise 
in numbers, and in the strength of numbers to thus export 
year after year, and she may keep her cattle, her corn, her 
rice, her sugar, her cotton, her cocoa, her cassada, her eddoes, 
her yams, her sweet potatoes, her garden productions, as 
beans, tomatoes, &c., with all her variety of tropical fruits, 
for her own population, and those of the shipping which 
come to her coast for her exports. Much thought of Liberia 
has not made me mad. I speak the words of truth and so- 
12 



178 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



berness. As she now is, she cannot do it. She is deficient in 
labor on her land. Many of the statements we have had about 
her agricultural state, have been too high colored. The ex- 
ports of Liberian labor, the absence of the plow, the unin- 
closed farms, and the number of acres cultivated, prove her 
present deficiency in doing justice to themselves, and to the 
soil of Liberia. 

4. Liberia is sustained by labor that is foreign. The Ameri- 
can Colonization Society places on her shores her citizens, sup- 
ports them for six months, attends them, when sick, for six 
months, by paid physicians, and nurses, hurries the dead of the 
six months, pays for the survey of land drawn by the emigrants, 
buys her territory of the natives, gives the government the right 
to sell lands to increase her treasury, and pays the expense of 
agencies to superintend these matters, except that of the 
sales of lands. The Episcopal, Baptist, Methodist, and Pres- 
byterian Boards of Foreign Missions, furnish the population 
of Liberia with the Christian Ministry, and teachers of com- 
mon and high schools. These Boards expended in Liberia, in 
1857, over $90,000. Three-fourths of the sum the Liberians 
received in the moral and pecuniary benefit of it. The Secreta- 
ry of Treasury states in his annual report the revenue obtained 
by the coast trade and the export duty, was $25,625 25 — very 
near two-thirds of the reliable revenue of Liberia. But this 
sum is from the labor of the natives. Is there another nation 
that gets its national support as Liberia receives hers? She 
has no weight bearing on her, whereby she feels the necessity 
of industry for her self-support. As a nation, she may be said 
to live by the labor of foreigners. She is this day not walking 
alone. She wants for nothing as to extent of land, or for pro- 
ducts that are reliable or easy of cultivation. What does 
she grow, that the labor for it is by the sweat of the brow? 
The statistics furnished of exports show a regular falling off 
in the last four years. This is not owing to a want of de- 
mand for palm oil. The Earl of Clarendon stated, in Nov., 
1857, in the House of Commons, in England, that the palm 
trade at Lagos has increased fifty per cent., and now amount- 
ed to £2,000,000 a year. I learned in Monrovia that the 
steamers touching there monthly were in part loaded with 
cotton shipped at Lagos for England. I know that it is the 
British capital that brings the native labor, spread over a great 
territory far back into the interior, to Lagos, for her shipping 
to take away to England; while the Liberians have not capi- 
tal thus to use. But right and candor requires us to put 
an honorable and true expose of her position before the 
mind of herself as well as the American reader. It is true, if 
I may so express myself, she has but arisen to stand on her 



LIBERIA, A3 I POUND IT. 



179 



feet. The revenue from her own productions^ last year^ was but 
four dollars and sixty-five cents! "What thinkest thou, Simon? 
Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? 
of their own children or of strangers? Peter saith, of stran- 
gers." The practice of Liberia says, "the children are free." 
No. Liberia must change her system of agriculture. She 
must have more of her population on farming land. She 
must introduce other implements of husbandry. She must 
introduce a system of taxation on the property of her citi- 
zens. I am sensible there is a very perceptible difference 
in the Liberians on their farm lands, in getting a living, 
and having wherewith to be taxed, to add to a State reve- 
nue. The difference is seen in their industry, their judg- 
ment in things raised, and their discretion in using their 
means. All have to clear lands, build houses, and culti- 
vate the ground; but some raise w^hat will grow in the short- 
est time, for food, and give a surplus to sell, to get clothing 
for the family, and to meet a thousand and one family wants; 
while others raise other articles that enable them to add to 
their improvements and comforts yearly. This class can pay 
tax for government, school, or church purposes. Often I 
found the question well balanced in the minds of some, what 
is it best to raise to make it easier for me to get a support? 
The man is not perplexed in mind that a yoke of oxen and a 
plow would open up his way to farming, or that if he had a 
coffee orchard, he would have a certain income from his land. 
The question for him to solve is, who will buy my arrow root 
and ginger, and give me the cash to buy my oxen and plow, 
and coffee plants? Here is the shoal that many want to get 
over. This is a subject I have talked over with farmers in 
Liberia. At first, my amazement at their farming, and at 
what the land would give in repay, when properly cultiva- 
ted, led me to censure them. But the more I considered their 
position, I lessened my censure. Barter will keep the farm- 
ers down in Liberia. Money for what can be exported, is 
what the people need in Liberia, to have exports brought into 
market. Here is the rub. Who will remove the cause? Good 
policy requires that special attention should be paid to the ex- 
penditure of money belonging to some emancipated servants 
going to Liberia. It is not every such emigrant that should 
have the disposal of his money in Baltimore, or after landing 
in Liberia. Such persons should have their money placed in 
the hands of a judicious man, and one who is trustworthy, 
and who lives in or near to the settlement the em'grant set- 
tles in. Such a person should advise with the emigrant to 
use his own labor in clearing his land, putting up his house, 
and in planting out his farm, that his money may be the less 



180 



LIBEEUj AS i POTTNB IT. 



drawn on foi' these things. But if he will not, by his own 
labor, assist, let these things be done with his money, and 
the wife and children be placed, as soon as possible, in the 
house. Then the rations of the family can be drawn; and, 
like the North Carolina woman, they have something from 
the land that will assist the family to live. This friend acts 
in what will be a profitable investment on the land. Such an 
individual should be required to make a report at the end of 
the six months, to the American Society, through the Probate 
Court of the county he resides in, how he has expended the 
money; and the American Society should forward the report, 
or a copy of it, to the State Society that sent the emigrants out 
to Liberia. The person exercising this trust should receive 
five per cent, on the money placed in his hands. This plan 
\ I laid before four of the leading men in Liberia, just before 
I left that country, and I was gratified that they approved of 
it as judicious and practicable, if the right men could be in- 
duced to act. 

5. Liberia should pay more attention to the condition of 
the natives living within her political jurisdiction. Her in- 
terests require that their labor, and their influence, and their 
habits should be under the direct influence of civilization. 
The laws in regard to their rights between Liberian and na- 
tive are good, but there is no legislative action that shows 
system, or the use of means to bring them into a state of in- 
dustry. I could not see, nor learn what measures the govern- 
ment had in operation to draw them into the enjoyment of her 
civil privileges. It is true the natives who come into the set- 
tlements could see a body of people like unto themselves, in 
color and features, dressed, and with usages that are com- 
mendable to them for their adoption. And it is also true that 
in many families male and female natives are employed to 
work. But there appears not a feeling of common brotherhood to- 
ward them. They are not considered in the light as a part 
and parcel to be grafted into their good olive tree as soon as 
it is practicable for the good of both parties. I have long 
thought that the black man did not exhibit that deep toned 
piety that gave utterance in self-dedication to missions to his 
own race in a heathenish state. This statement is certainly 
worthy of examination. When I was in Liberia I could but 
notice it on the part of the Liberians as a body toward the na- 
tives. How many of those who were living in families were 
clothed? How many of them were clothed for the Sabbath, 
and taken to the church for public worship ? I would not judge 
harshly. But I fear that cheap pay, and that pay not regu- 
lated by the rule, do unto them as you would they should do 
unto you, has much to do with the employment of the na- 



taiSRU, AS t FOtJHB IT. 



181 



tives, and not their social and moral improvement. The 
friends of colonization have a right to hope, and do expect, 
that the presence of Liberia in her government, and political 
and religious institutions, and intercourse with the natives, 
wrhatever that intercourse may be, will cause them in some 
feeble sense, at least, to say in their hearts, " who hath be- 
gotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am 
desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath 
brought up these ? Behold, I was left alone ; these, where 
have they been." It is laid upon Liberia in her gratitude to 
God for her Christianity, and she is bound, in honor and love 
to the church, to show that the Missionary laboring among 
the natives has in her expressed life, and in her bowels of 
love toward the natives, a most cordial, steady, and regular 
assistance to teach the African to believe in God. 

6. It is a question deserving of the most calm and prayerful 
consideration, whether the church in her different Missionary 
Societies should not act more definitely and distinctly for the 
evangelizing of the natives in Liberia. I would speak with 
great deference on this subject. The Liberians and the na- 
tives are living in the same country, as two distinct classes 
of persons, in their language, their education, their religion, 
their habits, their customs, their dress, and their aims of life. 
What is used for the benefit of one class cannot be used for 
the other class, without important modifications. A minister 
to make full proof of his ministry to the Liberian, must live 
among the Liberians. A missionary to labor for the conver- 
sion of the natives to Christianity and civilization, must live 
in the tribe, and see that the day school, and sanctuary insti- 
tutions are bearing directly and systematically upon parents 
and children. He should be " among them as a nurse who 
cherisheth her children." As the natives are undressed, they 
cannot in that state be taken to Liberian churches to attend 
on the worship of God — nor can undressed children attend 
the same school with Liberian children. Christianity is in- 
separably connected with whatever tends to modesty in man- 
ners, and the protection of virtue. Paul says, " I will, that 
women adorn themselves in modest apparel." Native women 
must be gathered in their own churches on the Sabbath for 
the worship of God. Speaking after the manner of men, 
upon their elevation depends the elevation of the men and 
children of their tribes. My surprise was great when I found 
what Foreign Missionaries were in Liberia. They were 
ministers, with two or three exceptions, who had charge of 
Liberian congregations. They lived in the midst of their con- 
gregations. Some of them regularly, others occasionally went 
in the afternoon of Sabbath^ a few miles to a half town of natives, 



182 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



or a full town as the case may be, and preached through 
an interpreter, and returned to his family. Now and then, 
one went some ten or fifteen miles and spent a few weeks 
to labor, where a school under the charge of a native 
was established, and the return to his family was generally 
followed with secular business, and preaching to a Liberian 
congregation on the Sabbath. It is due to the Episcopal 
Church to say, she is acting more directly in Foreign Missions 
among the natives, than either of the other Boards I have re- 
ferred to. And yet her- ministry is found in part, ministers of 
Liberian congregations as much so as other ministers are. 
I do not say, nor would imply, that the Ministers of the Gos- 
pel in Liberia are not doing a good work in preaching, and in 
teaching schools among their brother Liberians. Nor do I 
say, nor would I imply, that the minds of white missionaries 
in Liberia are not deeply impressed with the condition of 
the natives; and that their action through the schools of Li- 
berians, is regarded by them as a wise and salutary means of 
good. I wish to speak commendably of the ministry in Li- 
beria. It is due to them. But their labor is of a too domes- 
tic character with Liberians, to have a Foreign Mission bear- 
ing on the natives. The natives do not get that notice as 
heatheiis, to be brought to the knowledge of the truth, as their 
numbers and position, and relation to God and the Liberians, 
and to the interior tribes, demand. Let any one take the 
the Reports of the Boards, and read the names of the places 
named as the stations of the ministers, and he will find, with 
the exception of iome of the Epicopalian Missionaries, the 
places are settlements of Liberians. I state these facts for 
no other object than that it may be duly considered whether 
the natives should not share in the distribution of the funds 
of the Boards, more largely in men and money than they 
have received. 

7. The acknowledgment of the independence of Liberia 
by the United States Government would be a great benefit 
to Liberia. Such an acknowledgment would not injure or 
weaken any state right to the slave institution in it. Libe- 
ria, or some such place, must exist. And the better it can 
be justly commended to the free colored people, they will the 
more readily take up their abode in it. And as masters will 
be found every year setting free their servants, it is desirable 
and best that they should send their servants to Liberia. The 
interest of both white and black, demands this separation. 
Beside, this acknowledgment of Liberia on the part of our 
government, would have great influence on many American 
traders on the coast of Liberia. They would by treaty stand 
in a position they ought to stand in with other competing 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



183 



traders- It would also express to the natives, our recogni- 
zance of Liberia's rights to carry into execution all of her 
laws that are consistent with the laws of nations. And the 
Liberians would feel there was a feeling of sympathy for 
them in the land of their birth, where they and their fathers 
toiled for the benefit of the States. 1 think I may say the 
Liberians love the American people. I heard not a word of 
complaint, or reproach, or execration, of our people. It will 
be no loss to us in commerce or dignity, to make this ac- 
knowledgment, while the act will be beneficial to Liberia. 
And if the government would give to Liberia a small armed 
steamer, it would be of great service to her. 1 . It would 
enable her to take from one point to another point on her 
coast, her troops in case of war, sooner than a sail vessel can 
do it, subject to the frequent calms on the coast. 2. The 
presence of the steamer would show to the natives on the 
coast how readily the Liberian government can pass her eye 
over them, and spy out any movement they may be making 
against her citizens. 3. It would strengthen the navigation 
and revenue laws, by causing a more strict compliance to 
them on the part of traders, who find they are watched by a 
eteamer that can be near them "at an hour when they think 
not." 4. It would keep all the coast of Liberia under a full 
watch that a slaver could not per chance get a slave from a 
tribe. 

8. The Liberians are most decidedly in the advance of the 
natives. It would be an outrage to our character; to the chris- 
tian religion, and the benefits of education, to think it was not 
so ; while it would be speaking an untruth about the Liberi- 
ans to hint it was not true. It is wrong to attempt a compar- 
ison to show a likeness between them in manners, habits, 
and degradation of life. The Liberians need a better system 
of agriculture, a more steady action in getting into a state of 
independence of missionary aid ; but the natives need a new 
modeling altogether in their civil, social, moral, and political 
state. I m^die particular inquiry in the different counties, and 
learnt that twenty of the Liberians, from the commencement 
of the colony to the present time, had gone among the na- 
tives to live as they lived. This out of 11,172 emigrants 
is not expressive of retrograding to heathenism. 

9. It is important that the American Society, and the dif- 
ferent State Societies, should have Liberia more distinctly 
under their eye as to where the emigrants they send out should 
acclimate, and what facilities are at hand for them to go on 
to their land. The Receptacle should be near at hand to 
where they will dwell. The emigrants land in Liberia gen- 
erally as Btrangers, and many of them inexperienced as to 



184 



LIBERIA, AS I FOUND IT. 



how to get at what they need. Some of them have friends 
who are living where it is not desirable new comers should 
stop at and acclimate. Their persuasion ought not to be al- 
lowed to take the emigrant to his place. Much responsibility 
is thrown upon the executive officers of the Society. Great 
confidence is placed in their actions by masters, who, after 
much serious deliberation, have decided to send their ser- 
vants to Liberia, through the agency -of the Colonization So- 
ciety. The emigrants stand in need of their care, their ad- 
vice, their patience, and their attention. I would not imply 
that the Societies do not give to them this notice. But 1 
speak thus that masters, and the colored people themselves, 
may know that this feeling is regarded to be necessary, and 
will be tenderly and faithfully exercised by the Agents of the 
Societies. The Colonization Society is a benevolent So- 
ciety. 

10. As to the propriety of sending emigrants to Liberia I 
have not a doubt on my mind. That it is the best home for 
them I do believe. That all the blacks promiscuously should 
go there who have the offer to go I do not think. That it is 
best for the emigrant, or for Liberia's advantage for numbers, 
that any should go with bare hands, I say no. But that the 
healthy, the industrious, the temperate, the enterprising, the 
moral, and christian blacks should go. I emphatically say, 
yes. The intemperate, unhealthy, vicious, idle, and care-for- 
nothing should not be sent, nor encouraged to go there. But 
whoever goes should not have fixed in his mind he will find 
there his old home and associations surrounding him. For it 
is a new country. Back from the coast, (the part of Liberia 
the farmers should settle,) acclimation will be milder. Cape 
Palmas is the best point on the coast, in my opinion, for new em- 
igrants to go, without Blue Barre, at the mouth of the Sinoe 
river, is made as ettlemeat. Cape Mount is a high and healthy 
location, but it needs farm land for farming emigrants to 
settle on. Take Liberia as a whole, for climate, soil, water, 
productions, and adaptedness to the black race, I can honest- 
ly apply Isaiah, xxxiv, 17, to the blacks in our land and to 
Liberia : " He hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath 
divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it forever, 
from generation to generation, shall they dwell therein." 



ERRATA. 



On 20th page, 8th line from top, insert, and one family. 
On 118th page, 18th line from top, for inehes, read feet. 



THREE LETTERS TO A CONSERYATIYE, 



GEORGE d/aRMSTRONG, D.D., 



OF VIRGINIA. 



THREE CONSERYATIYE REPLIES, 



C. VAN RENSSELAER, D.D., 



OP NEW JERSEY. 



I. Oif THE Scriptural Doctrine of Slaveholdixg. 
11. On Emancipation and the Church. 
III. On the Historical Argument for Slaveholding. 



TOGETHER WITH 



TWO REJOINDERS, 

On Slaveholding, Schemes of Emancipation, Colonization, Etc. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
JOSEPH M. WILSON, 111 SOUTH TENTH STREET. 
1858. 



PREFACE. 



The Letters of Dr. Armstrong to Dr. Van Rensselaer were occasioned by a 
"brief notice of Dr. Armstrong's book " On the Scripture Doctrine of Slavery/' in 
the Presbyterian Magazine for September, 1857. 

Dr. Armstrong's Letters originally appeared in the " Central Presbyterian," 
published in Richmond, Va. They were afterwards transferred to the pages of 
the " Presbyterian Magazine and the Replies by Dr. Van Rensselaer appeared 
simultaneously with each Letter, in three numbers of that periodical. 

The three Letters and the three Replies were printed in pamphlet form, in 
April last. But a copy having been sent to Dr. Armstrong before circulation, he 
objected to the publication of the Series without certain Rejoinders, which he pro- 
posed to publish in the Presbyterian Magazine, if permitted to do so. Permis- 
sion was granted ; and hence the publication of the pamphlet has been delayed 
until the Rejoinders and the Replies to them, have been finally issued. 

It is due to Dr. Armstrong to say that the delay has been principally owing to 
circumstances beyond the control of the Editor. 

It is also proper to add, for the information of strangers, that both the writers 
are ministers of the Presbyterian Church (Old School). 



DR. ARMSTRONG'S 
THREE LETTERS TO A CONSERVATIVE. 



LETTER I. 

ON THE PROPER STATEMENT OF THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE OF 

SLAVERY. 

To THE Rev. C. Yan Rensselaer, D.J). : The September num- 
ber of the "Presbyterian Magazine" contains a short review of 
several recently published works on Slavery, among others, of the 
" Christian Doctrine of Slavery." In the course of this review 
you express certain opinions, which, if I mistake not, constitute 
the peculiar creed of those who take the title of Conservatives, as 
contradistinguished from the Abolitionist, on the one hand, and 
what they designate as the Pro-slavery man,^ on the other. On 
these opinions I take the liberty of addressing you thus, through 
the press. 

Do not understand me as intending to find fault with your treat- 
ment of my book. The spirit in which you have reviewed it is all 
that I could desire, and the praise you have awarded it, more than 
it deserves. But, 

1. The opinions you have expressed are not peculiar opinions of 
your own, but common to you with a large class of Christian men, 
especially in the Northern States. They are, therefore, matters 
of public interest, and may properly be made the subject of public 
discussion. 

2. Without any intention of controversy, either on your part or 
mine, the issues have fairly arisen between us in our published 
■writings, for I have seldom seen the peculiar articles of Conserva- 
tism more distinctly and concisely presented than in your review. 
You give me credit for maintaining a "kind spirit," and for "fair- 

* I use these terms not intending thereby to admit the propriety of their popular 
application, but, simply, because they are thus applied. Were I to designate the 
three parties, with an eye to the true nature and origin of their creeds, I should call 
them the Philosophical — using the word philosophy in the sense of what Paul designates 
as "science falsely so called" (1 Tim. 6 : 20), the Fhilosophico- Scriptural and the Scrip- 
tural. Whether such a designation would be a proper one, I submit to your judgment 
after you have read my letters. 



4 



Dr. Armstrong's First Letter, 



ness," in writing on the subject of slavery. There is no need that 
I should "speak your praise" in the Presbyterian Church. As 
you truly say, this delicate subject is growing in importance," 
and the discussion of it, in a Christian spirit, will do good, I be- 
lieve, and not evil. 

3. The points on which we differ lie entirely outside of the proper 
range of ecclesiastical action. Their discussion, therefore, cannot 
involve any "agitation" of the Church, though their decision in 
such a way that we all shall "see eye to eye" — if such a thing be 
possible — would greatly promote Christian sympathy among God's 
people, and advance the prosperity of Zion. 

I heartily sympathize with you in the wish with which you close 
your article, that our Church shall not change "the scriptural 
position" which she has assumed on the subject of slavery. When 
she declared, in answer to certain memorials asking her to make 
slaveholding a subject of discipline, " Since Christ and his inspired 
Apostles did not make slaveholding a bar to communion, we, as a 
court of Christ, have no authority to do so; since they did not 
attempt to remove it from the Church by legislation, we have no 
authority to legislate on the subject'' (see Digest, p. 813), she made 
a deliverance on slavery which covers all proper ground of eccle- 
siastical action, and a deliverance perfectly satisfactory, in so far 
as I know, to our whole Church at the South. This "scriptural 
position" has secured for her peace in the midst of abounding con- 
tention; and I can wish, "for Zion's sake," she may ever maintain 
that position. 

Outside of the proper range of ecclesiastical action, however, 
there are points on which good men may honestly differ. Such 
are the points to which I propose directing your attention in the 
present letters. 

1. We differ respecting the proper statement of the doctrine of 
scripture respecting slavery. 

Your statement of that doctrine is, — " Slavery is not necessarily 
and iyi all circumstances sinful." — (Pres. Mag. p. 422.) 

My statement of it is, — "Slaveholding is not a sin in the sight 
of God, and is not to be accounted an 'offence' by his Church." — 
[Chn. Doc. Slav. p. 8.) 

Taking your statement, in connection with your expressed wish 
that our Church should not change the position she has assumed 
on the subject of slavery, a fair interpretation of it must make it 
cover, in so far as ecclesiastical action is concerned, all that mine 
does. Yet, no one can read the two, when thus placed side by side, 
without feeling that they differ, at least in tone and spirit. And 
I now raise the question : Which statement of the doctrine best ac- 
cords with the teachiyig and spirit of the Word of God ? 

That we may answer this question intelligently let us look at it, — 

First, As a statement, in general terms, of a conclusion from 
admitted, scriptural, premises. 

The statement of these premises in the "Christian Doctrine of 



The Scriptural Doctrine of Slavery, 



5 



Slavery," pp. 102, 103, a statement to which you do not object, is 
in these terms: ''In our examination of what the New Testament 
teaches on the subject of slavery, we have found, 1, That slave- 
holding does not appear in any catalogue of sins or 'offences' given 
us by inspired men ; 2, That the Apostles received slaveholders 
into the Christian Church, and continued them therein, without 
giving any intimation, either at the time of their reception or after- 
wards, that slaveholding was a sin or an 'offence;' 3, That Paul 
sent back a fugitive slave to his own master again, and assigned 
as his reason for so doing, that master's right to the services of 
his slave ; 4, That the Apostles frequently enjoin the relative duties 
of master and slave, and enforce their injunctions upon both alike, 
as Christian men, by Christian motives, uniformly teaching certain 
evils which they sought to correct, as incidental evils, and not 'part 
and parcel' of slavery itself ; 5, That Paul treated the distinctions 
which slavery creates as matters of very little importance, in so 
far as the interests of the Christian life are concerned; 6, That he 
declares that this his doctrine respecting the relation of slave and 
master, is wholesome doctrine, and according to godliness, and the 
doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ; 7, And directs Christian minis- 
ters to teach it in the Church, and prohibits the teaching of any 
doctrine at variance with it, under the most solemn sanctions known 
to the Church." 

Such are the premises, — fairly stated. What is a proper state- 
ment, in general terms, of the logical conclusion therefrom ? Is it 
simply, " Slavery is not necessarily and in all circumstances sin- 
ful ?" Or, is it, "Slaveholding is not a sin in the sight of God, 
and is not to be accounted an 'offence' by his Church?" 

Second^ Let us look for a decision in a different direction, and 
ask, which statement best accords with the tone and spirit in which 
the scriptural deliverances on this subject are made ? 

And here, without examining each of the several passages whicli 
might be quoted, let us turn, at once, to that which of all others 
may most properly be appealed to, to decide the question, viz. : 
1 Tim. 6 : 1—5. Here inspired Paul is giving instruction to Timo- 
thy, a minister of the Gospel, respecting what he should teach^ and 
"how he ought to behave himself" in the Church of God. For this 
reason we are bound to consider this as the instruction of the One 
Head of the Church to the ministers of that Church respecting 
their duty as teachers and rulers in the Church, i. g., it is express 
instruction to us on the very point we are examining. 

" Let as many servants {douloi), as are under the yoke, count 
their own masters {despotas) worthy of all honour, that the name 
of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have 
believing masters (despotas) let them not despise them because 
they are brethren ; but rather do them service, because they are 
faithful and beloved partakers of the benefit. These things teach 
and exhort. If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to 



6 



Br, Armstrong's First Letter, 



wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to 
the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing 
nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof 
Cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings 
of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that 
gain is godliness, — from such withdraw thyself.'' 

Is there no discord to your ear between Paul's "certain sound," 
" wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the 
doctrine which is according to godliness," and such quavering notes 
as " not necessarily" and in all " circumstances ?" Or, — Take the 
whole passage, read it over carefully, examine each of its several 
clauses, try not simply to get at the truth it contains, but try to 
catch the spirit of the passage ; and then, make a deliverance on 
slavery, in general terms, and see if it will assume the form, — 
" Slavery is not necessarily and in all circu7nsta7ices a sin ;" or, 

Slaveholding is not a sin in the sight of God, and is not to be 
accounted an ' offence' by his Church." 

You may say, the two statements mean substantially the same 
thing. Even granting that such is the intention of those who 
use them, I object to your statement, because, — 1. It is an unusual 
form of stating ethical propositions such as this, and though it is 
broad enough to acquit the slaveholding member of the Church, it 
gives to his acquittal a sort of " whip, and clear him" air — pardon 
my use of this homely expression : I can find no other which will 
so well convey the exact idea I wish to give utterance to — which 
seems to me, in contrast with all the New Testament deliverances 
on the subject. 

2. When taken apart from all explanations — and every general 
proposition should be so expressed as to bear such examination — 
it does not fairly cover all the ground which the doctrine of Christ 
and his inspired Apostles covers. 

I know — I think — your objections to such a statement of the 
doctrine as I am contending for ; and, if I am right as to what 
those objections are, a little impartial, ingenuous examination will 
satisfy you that they are all groundless. You, probably, would 
ask, — 

1. Does not the statement slaveholding is not a sin in the sight 
of God, and is not to be accounted an ' offence' by his Church," 
involve the idea that all slaveholding is sinless in the sight of God ? 
I answer, by no means. When we afiirm that marriage is not a 
sin in the sight of God, we do not mean, nor are we understood to 
affirm that all marriages are lawful — marriages contracted within 
the " prohibited degrees," for example. As the proposition is one 
based upon the law of God, the marriage to which alone it properly 
applies, must subsist in accordance with the requirements of that 
law. There is a slaveholding which the Word of God teaches us 
is " consistent with Christian character and profession (that is, 
consistent with justice, mercy, holiness, love to God and love to 



The Scriptural Doctrine of Slavery. 



7 



man)/' Hodge. The nature of this slaveholding, the law of God de- 
fines. When, then, we state the proposition that slaveholding is 
not a sin in the sight of God," it can properly apply to such slave- 
holding only as subsists in conformity with the law of God. 

2. Does not such a statement involve the idea of the perpetuity 
of slavery ? I answer, by no means. When we affirm that des- 
potic government in France, at the present day — demanded, as I 
believe, and I doubt not you do too, by the general good of the 
French nation — is not sinful in the sight of God ; or, when we give 
utterance to a more general proposition, yet covering this particular 
case, and say, civil government is ordained of God ; we do not 
mean to affirm, nor does any man understand us as affirming, the 
perpetuity of despotic government in that country. The time may 
come when the general good will demand a different form of govern- 
ment for France, and there is nothing in the general truth ex- 
pressed in the proposition, "civil government is ordained of God," 
to forbid the French nation, when that time does come, taking 
measures to secure a different form of government for themselves, 
in any lawful way. 

3. It is conceded, on all hands, that there are incidental evils 
attaching to slavery as it exists in this country, and in our day. 
Will not such a statement of the doctrine be so misunderstood 
by many, as to render them indifferent to the removal of those 
evils ? Here, again, I answer by no means. x\nd I answer thus 
confidently, because I feel that I have firm ground upon which to 
stand. 

The Word of God is the standard in Christian ethics. Its de- 
liverances are the result of a better than human wisdom, — better, 
not only as a superior wisdom, but as a wisdom guided and governed 
by perfect benevolence. If, then, the Word of God makes its de- 
liverances in a certain way, I hnoiu that that is the best way — the 
way in which the truth will soonest and most certainly work out 
its appropriate result. Paul has written some things on the subject 
of slavery, which, judging from what we see throughout our land, 

are hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and 
unstable will wrest as they do also the other scriptures." (2 Pet. 
3 : 16.) But of this we may rest assured. We will never mend 
the matter in this particular, by attempting to improve upon the 
deliverances of the Word of God. 

Geo. D. Armstrong. 



LETTER 11. 



EMANCIPATION AND THE CHURCH. 

To THE Rev. C. Van Rensselaer : Having examined the ques- 
tion — What is a proper statement of the Scripture doctrine of 
slavery? — I will now ask your attention to another point on which 
we differ, viz. : 

II. The proper work of the Church — the object and end which 
she is to keep in view in her labours for and with the slave race in 
our country. And let me ask you to especially note the fact, that 
it is the work of the Churchy and not the work of the Christian 
citizen, in his character as a citizen, about which I raise a ques- 
tion. 

On this point — 

You write — "We regard the Christian instruction and elevation 
of the slaves as a means to an end, and that end is the recovery of 
the blessings of personal liberty, when Providence opens the way 
for it. The higher end is the salvation of their souls." {Pres. 
Mag. p. 422.) 

I have written — " In the case of a race of men in slavery, the 
work which God has appointed his Church — as we learn it, both 
from the example and the precepts of inspired men — is to labour to 
secure in them a Christian life on earth and meetness for his hea- 
venly kingdom." {Chn. Doc. Sla. p. 131.) 

What you have set forth as ^'the higher end" of Christian in- 
struction, is just what I hold to be the one end at which the Church 
is to aim. As to this end then we agree. 

We differ in that you teach that the Church, in addition to this, 
should aim at securing for the slave — in your own language — " the 
blessing of personal liberty, when Providence opens the way for 

it:' 

Before entering upon the examination of the point of real differ- 
ence between us, I must strip your proposition of the adventitious 
support it derives from the terms in which you have expressed it. 
And I shall do this the more carefully, and, if possible, distinctly, 



Emancipation and the Church, 



9 



because you have expressed it in the same terms in which I have 
often seen it expressed before ; and, if I mistake not, it is mainly 
through the influence of this adventitious support it has found 
favour among good men. 

1. On the phrase — " the blessings of personal liberty" — listen 
to Samuel Nott, whose " Slavery and the Remedy" you so highly 
commend. " Unhappily, this question of well-being, is kept out of 
sight amidst the earnest discussions of the times. Personal free- 
dom is assumed as an absolute good, and in this ' petitio principii' 
the great question of practical well-being is altogether overlooked. 
Admit the evil to be such that no man can rightly reduce another 
man to slavery, any more than to poverty, sickness, or broken 
bones ; admit that slavery as it is has more woes than belong to a 
merely servile condition, and demanding the speediest possible re- 
medy ; it does not follow hence, that the whole condition of the en- 
slaved requires to be changed, without discrimination of the evil 
and the good. You must remove the evil, but you must not re- 
move the good; you must remove the injurious and destructive, but 
you must not remove the beneficial and conservative. A Christian 
State, philanthropic and patriarchal, is bound to abolish just so 
much of slavery as it is, as is injurious, and no more ; to retain just 
so much as is beneficial, and no less ; seeking in very deed the well- 
being of the enslaved race, and that common good in which alone 
their welfare can be found." (pp. 24, 25.) 

2. On the phrase — when Providence shall open the way for 
it'' — I remark, Providence never does " open the way" — in the 
sense in which you use that expression — for any change, unless 
well-being is to be promoted thereby. In writing, then, in terms 
which imply that Providence will open the way for the slave's re- 
covering his personal freedom — for you write, ''''when Providence 
shall," and not if Providence shall — you are assuming a second 
time the controverted point, " that personal freedom is an absolute 
good." 

Strip your proposition of this double petitio 'principii, and it will 
stand, — We regard the Christian instruction of the slaves, as a 
means to an end, and that end is their emancipation before very 
long. 

Here I take issue with you. I affirm that the question of the 
emancipation of the slave is one with which " Christian instruction," 
i. e. the instruction of the Church — for so the "higher end" you 
mention requires me to understand that phrase — has nothing di- 
rectly to do. The Church has no right to set before herself such 
an end, as an end either higher or lower, of her labours. 

You and I hold one opinion respecting the nature of the Church. 
The Church is no Voluntary Society, constituted by man, and there- 
fore, liable to be modified and fashioned at his will. It is the king- 
dom of the Lord Jesus Christ. From him it derives its charter. 
His word is its law. By his instructions the Church is to abide, 



10 



J)r, Armstrong's Second Letter. 



teaching all that he has commanded ; and where he has given no 
command, placing her hand upon her lips. 

On this matter of emancipation, Christ has given no command to ; 
his Church. The Word of God contains no deliverance, either ex- t 
press or clearly implied, respecting it. Hence, I affirm, the Church I 
has no right to make a deliverance respecting it; much less, to set 
it before herself as an end of her labours. Eor an examination of 
1 Cor. 7 : 21, " if thou majest be made free, use it rather," — I 
refer you to the " Chn. Doc. Slav.," especially the remarks on pp. 
71-74. 

The question of emancipation is a question concerning civil rights, 
and the relations of capital and labour, and is therefore essentially 
a political and not a religious question. And the Bible treats it 
just as it treats all other questions of the same kind, — it makes no 
deliverance on the subject, but leaves it to be determined by the 
State, in view of her responsibility to God for the well-being of the 
subject ; the Church having no right to interfere. 

So important does the observance of this distinction between the 
proper province of the Church and the State appear to me, espe- 
cially at the present time, that I have discussed the subject at some 
length in the " Christian Doctrine of Slavery." Let me apply the 
principles there laid down to the two points in which we differ. 
Christ requires the Church to teach that the relations which slavery 
establishes are not sinful relations ; and to teach the duties which 
grow out of those relations, to masters and slaves alike, and by 
her discipline to enforce the discharge of those duties, in so far as 
her members are concerned. Here her duty ceases. Does any 
member of the Church believe that slavery is a political evil ? — as 
a teacher and ruler in the Church, I have no difference with him. 
Does he teach this his faith, but teach it somewhere else than in 
the pulpit ? — I have no difference with him. Does he, availing 
himself of the rights which belong to a citizen in a republic, act 
and vote in accordance with this, his faith ? — I have no difference 
with him. And on the other hand. Does another believe that sla- 
very is a political good, and teach and act upon this, his faith ? — I 
have no more difference with him than I had with the former. So 
w^ith respect to emancipation. Does any Christian citizen believe 
that he ought to aim at the ultimate or even speedy emancipation 
of the slaves in our Southern States ? — I have no difference with 
him on this account. Does he teach and labour to carry into effect 
these his views, in a lawful way ? — I have no difference with him. 
And on the other hand. Does another believe that he ought to aim 
at the perpetuation of slavery, and teach and act upon this his 
faith, provided he does it lawfully ? — I have no difference with him 
therefor. These are all questions which lie outside the province of 
the Church. Anti-slavery and pro-slavery men, if the terms anti- 
slavery and pro-slavery be understood to refer to the question of 
expediency, or political good and evil, may all be alike worthy 



Emancipation and the Cliurcli, 



11 



members ofHlie Church. Differences on such points as these should 
no more interfere with their hearty co-operation in building up the 
kingdom of God in the world, than differences respecting the tariff, 
or the distribution of the public lands. But does any man, anti- 
slavery or pro-slavery, attempt to bring these matters into the 
Church, that he may get from the Church a decision, or enlist the 
Church in the cause he has espoused, I meet him at the threshold 
with the Master's command : " Render unto Caesar the things 
that are Caesar's," as well as "unto God the things that are God's." 
(Matt. 22 : 21.) 

The commission Christ has given his Church, " Go ye into all 
the worlds and preach the Gospel to every creature^'' requires her 
to preach that Gospel to the slave as well as the master. The in- 
evitable effecfc, an effect which God designed, of this preaching, 
when faithfully done, must be the elevation of those to whom it is 
preached. But this truth no more necessarily implies the disap- 
pearance of slavery than it does the disappearance of poverty from 
among men. If, in time, the well-being of the slave — well-being 
in the highest and most comprehensive sense of that phrase — re- 
quires his emancipation, his emancipation will just as certainly take 
place as that God rules. And just as firmly as I believe this, do 
I believe, that when it comes, if come it does, as national indepen- 
dence came to our country, it will come without any violation of 
that order which God has established in the world ; and hence, 
through the agency of the State, and not that of the Church. 

You cannot be ignorant of the fact that the question of emanci- 
pation is a question surrounded with many difficulties — and let me 
add, difficulties which grow out of the obligation to provide for the 
well-being of the slave, far more than the master — and is a question 
upon which good and wise men honestly differ. Bishop Hopkins, 
of Vermont, for example, in his American Citizen," a work which 
does credit alike to his head and his heart, contends for ultimate 
emancipation. Rev. Samuel Nott, of Massachusetts (and I pur- 
posely take cases from among the inhabitants of non-slaveholding 
States), of whom you speak as "a returned missionary, one of the 
earliest of the self-sacrificing band who went forth to the heathen," 
and who, hence, may fairly be presumed to be a godly man, and 
one practically acquainted with man in a degraded condition, on 
the other hand, in his " Slavery and the Remedy," takes opposite 
ground ; and all his remedial suggestions are predicated upon the 
perpetuation of slavery in the Southern States. These men, no 
doubt, honestly differ ; and they have a right to differ here, with- 
out the Church calling either in question for his opinion. 

You will now see clearly the grounds upon which I object to 
your opinion. They are : 

1st. It determines what the Word of God leaves undetermined. 
In this it is extra- scriptural. 

2d. It calls for uniformity of opinion where Christ allows liberty. 
In this it is unscriptural. 



12 



Dr, Armstrong's Second Letter, 



3d. It obtrudes the Church into the province which God has as- 
signed to the State. In this it is anti-scriptural. 

You will see, too, why in the " Christian Doctrine of Slavery," 
you could find no expression of opinion on the subject of emancipa- 
tion. There was no expression of opinion there. I expressly dis- 
claimed the intention of treating slavery as a civil or political ques- 
tion. That had been done by others far more ably than I could 
hope to do it; and I had nothing new to ofi'er on the subject. A 
brief and faithful exhibition of what Christ and his Apostles taught, 
L g., a discussion of slavery as a religious question, it seemed to 
me might do good ; and to this I pledged myself in the *' Preface." 
The responsibility resting upon the preacher, in the pulpit, and the 
expositor of Scripture — whether his exposition be monographic or 
general — when writing for the press, is a very solemn responsibi- 
lity. His duty is clearly set forth in the words : " Son of man, I 
have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel : therefore 
hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me." 
(Ezek. 3 : 17.) The mixture of human opinions with God's truth 
has been one grand source of the evil which the Church has suf- 
fered in connection with this very matter ; of this, I shall take oc- 
casion to speak more fully in my last letter. 

Your testimony — On this point [i. e. emancipation) he is less 
explicit and full than we could desire. Indeed, his cautious lan- 
guage in one paragraph indicates a timidity and uncertainty entire- 
ly uncalled for ; and some might even suppose that his views were 
either indifferent to emancipation, or even opposed to it. This we 
do not believe ; but the paragraph reminds us of the doctrine of 
the Puseyites, who at times practise reserve in the communication 
of religious knowledge" — I was glad to receive : and I can well 
afford to pardon the lack of holiday dress in which the messenger 
presents himself, for the sake of the tidings which he brings. 

In concluding this letter, let me say — Do not confound the cause 
of Liberian Colonization, with the question respecting the general, 
ultimate emancipation of the slaves in our Southern States. The 
ground upon which our ablest Christians, philanthropists, and states- 
men have advocated that cause would remain, even if it were de- 
termined that a general emancipation would never take place. 

On this point, Bishop Hopkins has well written — " That a portion 
of the slaves will always be found worthy to be emancipated, as 
being possessed of more industry and talent than the average, is 
doubtless true, and such cases may safely be trusted to their mas- 
ter's liberality, or to the interest which they rarely fail to excite 
amongst others. That there is another portion likely to be dissatis- 
fied and refractory is also true, and the number of slaves who run 
away affords the evidence. But there are exceptions to the general 
rule, about as numerous, perhaps, as the cases amongst the free 
labourers of other countries, where a few, possessed of extraordinary 
energy, are seen to rise up from a very low beginning, and another 



Emancipation and the Church. 



13 



few prove worthy of the penitentiary ; while the vast majority con- 
tinue where they were, through the slavery/ of circumstances^ which 
proves to be about as strong as any other kind of bondage, amongst 
the masses of mankind. For that portion who desire and are quali- 
fied for freedom, our Southern philanthropists have provided, of 
their own accord, the noble colony of Liberia, now advanced so far 
as to be an object of great interest among the nations." American 
Citizen^ pp. 134, 135. 

Here is ground upon which the Christian philanthropist who 
believes that the general emancipation of the slaves in our Southern 
States will never take place, may yet consistently advocate the 
cause of Liberia. And let me add — if we believe the testimony of 
such men as Dr. J. L. Wilson (see his " Western Africa"), and other 
judicious pious men who have been in Liberia — that colony is likely 
to receive accessions from this source alone, as large as she will be 
able to receive with safety to herself, for years to come : and no 
more disastrous event could occur to her, at the present time, than 
the landing upon her shore, not fifty but even five thousand eman- 
cipated slaves per annum, as has been proposed in some of the 
schemes of emancipation which find favour with good men, espe- 
cially in the Northern States. 

Geokgb D. Armstrong. 



LETTER III. 



HISTORICAL VIEW OF ANTI-SLAVERY OPINIONS. 

To THE Rev. C. Van Rensselaer, D.D. : In my former letters 
I have examined the two articles which make up the peculiar 
creed of the conservative, as he is called. In the present, I will 
ask your attention to certain facts in the history of Anti-slavery 
opinions ; and this, for the sake of the practical lesson which they 
teach. 

Bishop Hopkins, in his American Citizen," after briefly ex- 
hibiting the scriptural proof that slaveholding is not a sin, writes : 
"If we go on from the days of the Apostles to examine the doc- 
trine and practice of the Christian Church, we find no other views 
entertained on the subject. Slavery continued to exist in every 
quarter. Slaves were held, without any reproach, even by the 
bishops and clergy. When the practice died out, as it did in many 
of the European nations, the change was gradual, through the 
operation of worldly causes, and without any suspicion that the 
institution, in itself, involved a violation of religion or morality. 
Hence its lawfulness with respect to the African and the Indians 
taken in war, was universally maintained by the Puritan settlers of 
New England, who claimed the closest adherence in all things to 
the teachings of the Scriptures. And it was not until the latter 
part of the eighteenth century that a doubt was expressed, on either 
side of the Atlantic, in relation to the perfect consistency of such 
slavery with the precepts of the Gospel." 

" Since that time, indeed, public opinion, both in Old and New 
England, has undergone a great revolution. But this cannot be 
attributed to the Bible, nor to the Church, nor to any new know- 
ledge of the will of God, nor to the discovery of any unknown 
principles of moral action. All that belongs to these was perfectly 
familiar to the Christian world from the days of the Apostles. 
And therefore no intelligent and candid mind can be surprised to 
find that the most violent opponents of slavery in the United States 
are always ready to wrest the Bible and denounce the Church, 
because they cannot derive from either the slightest real supports 



The Historical Argument for Slavery. 15 



in their assaults against the lawfulness of the institution." (pp. 129, 
130.) 

The correctness of this brief history of the progress of Anti- 
slavery opinions, no one, I presume, will seriously question. And 
the point to which I would, now, particularly call your attention, is 
that presented in the words — i. e., this change, '''cannot he 
attributed to the Bihle^ nor to the Qhurch.'" It was not from the 
Bible these opinions originated ; it was not in the Church they first 
saw the light. 

Whence are they? I answer: They can be distinctly traced 
back to their origin in that infidel philosophy on the subjects of 
civil government and hurnan liberty, which, becoming popular in 
the latter half of the last century, had its culmination, in the one 
direction, in the French revolution, cind in the other, in the disas- 
trous emancipation effected in the British West India Islands : a 
philosophy which substitutes for the Bible account of the origin of 
civil government in the family, the theory of the "civil compact," 
as it has been called ; and confounds human liberty with unbridled 
license. 

You are familiar with the classic story of the fall of Troy ; — how, 
concealed in a wooden horse, consecrated to Diana, the enemy found 
admission into that doomed city. In a vray very similar has this 
infidel philosophy found admission into the Church of God. Of 
the mischief it has already wrought there, in rending the Church, 
in making enemies of those who should be friends, in prostituting 
the pulpit and desecrating the Sabbath by substituting the preach- 
ing of politics in the place of the Gospel, there is no need that I 
should tell you. 

This heresy — for surely, I do it no wrong when I apply to it the 
name of heresy — has made its most insidious approaches, and 
gained its most dangerous advantages, by subtly mingling its errors 
with God's truths, in our popular expositions of Scripture. As it 
is here, in the permanent printed page, its progress can be traced 
with least danger of falling into error, let me ask you to compare 
the exposition of a passage of Scripture bearing on ths subject of 
slavery, written before this infidel philosophy, " this science, falsely 
so called" obtained currency, with one written after it had begun 
to prevail, and another written in this, our day. 

Let us take a part of the passage to which attention has been 
already turned in my first letter, viz., 1 Tim. 6:2, " And they 
that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because 
they are brethren ; but rather do them service, because they are 
faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach 
and exhort." 

Turn now to Matthew Henry's Exposition, written early in the 
last century, and you will read : " Or suppose the master were a 
Christian and a believer, and the servant a believer too ; would not 
that excuse him, because in Christ there is neither bond nor free? 



16 Br. Armstrong's Third Letter, 

No, by no means, for Jesus Christ did not come to dissolve the bond 
of civil relation, but to strengthen it : They that have believing 
masters^ let them not despise them^ because they are brethren; for 
that brotherhood relates only to spiritual privileges, not to any out- 
ward dignity or advantage (those misunderstand and abuse their 
religion, who make it a pretence for denying the duties that they 
owe to their relations); nay, rather do them service^ because they 
are faithful and beloved. They must think themselves the more 
obliged to serve them, because the faith and love which bespeak 
men Christians, oblige them to do good ; and that is all wherein 
their service consists. Observe, It is a great encouragement to us 
in doing our duty to our relations, if we have reason to think they 
are faithful and beloved, and partakers of the benefit, that is, of 
the benefit of Christianity. Again, Believing masters and servants 
are brethren, and partakers of the benefit ; for in Christ Jesus 
there is neither bond nor free, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 
(Gal. 3 : 28.) Timothy is appointed to teach and exhort these things. 
Ministers must preach, not only the general duties of all, but the 
duties of particular relations." 

Here, all is plain, straightforward exposition of the text. The 
author evidently writes with a " single eye" to the exhibition of 
" the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" contained 
in the passage of Scripture he is expounding. 

Dr. Thomas Scott wrote his Commentary about the close of the 
last century ; the first edition was published in 1796. Let us look, 
now, at his exposition of this passage ; and, I select the Com- 
mentary of Scott, because the unquestioned piety of the man, and 
the general excellence of his work, render the peculiarity to which 
I would direct attention, all the more conspicuous. 

*'And such of them," ^. 'servants,' as enjoy the privilege 
of ' believing masters,' ought by no means to despise them, or 
withhold from them due respect and obedience ; because they were 
brethren in Christ, and so upon a level in respect of religious pri- 
vileges ; but rather ' to do them service' with double diligence 
and cheerfulness, because of their faith in Christ, and their in- 
terest in his love, as partakers of the inestimable benefit of his 
salvation. This shows that Christian masters were not required 
to set their slaves at liberty." 

Thus far, all is plain, straightforward exposition of what Paul 
has written. If any man will gainsay it, his controversy is not 
with Dr. Scott, the expositor, but with inspired Paul, the author. 
But Scott adds, " though they were instructed to behave towards 
them in such a manner as would greatly lessen and nearly anni- 
hilate the evils of slavery." Here the influence of this false phi- 
losophy begins to appear ; — and I object to this statement, not 
simply on the ground that it is not in the text, but mainly, be- 
cause it is a partial statement of truth, and thus, practical error. 
Paul never uses such paltering terms as " greatly lessen" and 



The Historical Argument for Slavery, 



IT 



" nearly annihilate," when dealing with the master respecting his 

behaviour" toward his slaves. That we may see how Paul does 
deal with this subject, turn to Col. 6 : 1, and read — " Masters, 
give unto your servants that which is just and equal ; knowing 
that ye also have a Master in heaven." See also Eph. 6 : 9. 
Paul is here enjoining their relative duties upon masters and ser- 
vants, along with husbands and wives, parents and children, and 
he enjoins these duties upon all alike, as Christians, by Christian 
motives. But he knows well that the natural affections do not 
afford as efficient protection to the slave as they do to the wife and 
the child, and hence — when he comes to deal with the master, he 
cites him at once before our common "Master in heaven," and in 
that awful presence he charges him, in view of the solemnities of 
the judgment — " give unto your servants that which is just and 
equal" — all, "that is just and equal." Now let this Christian 
master go back to his house or plantation again, and he will not 
be satisfied to "greatly alleviate," or " nearly annihilate" any evil 
which concerns his "behaviour" to his servants; he will seek to 
remove it altogether. 

Scott adds, yet further — "It would have excited much confusion, 
awakened the jealousy of the civil powers, and greatly retarded 
the progress of Christianity, had the liberation of slaves by their 
converts been expressly required by the Apostles : though the 
principles of both the law and the Gospel, when carried to their 
consequences, will infallibly abolish slavery." Here, this philoso- 
phy shows itself more distinctly. There is nothing of all this in 
the text. Taking the most favourable view of the case for the ex- 
positor, we say — It is not Paul's truths it is Dr. Scott's opinio7t. 
And yet, appearing where it does, most readers will take it all as 
if it were the teaching of Scripture. 

And it places the teaching of Christ and his Apostles on the 
subject of slavery altogether in a wrong light. The amount of 
this apology which Scott offers for this conduct, is well stated by 
Dr. Hodge (see his "Essays and Reviews," pp. 488, 489), in the 
words — " It amounts to this. Christ and his Apostles thought 
slaveholding a great crime, but they abstained from saying so for 
fear of the consequences. The very statement of the argument, 
in its naked form, is its refutation." Thus has the Commentary of 
so excellent a man as Dr. Scott been, here, " spoiled through his 
philosophy." (Col. 2 : 8.) 

Turn we now to an Exposition written in our day, when this 
philosophy has " run to seed ;" the " Notes on the New Testa- 
ment," by Rev. A. Barnes; and that I may do him no injustice, 
I shall give so much of his "Notes" as I quote, just as I find them 
printed, italics, punctuation, and all. My edition is that of the 
Harpers, 1853. 

" 2. And they that have believing masters. Masters who are 
Christians. It is clear from this, that Paul supposed that, at that 

2 



18 



Br, Armstro7ig's Third Letter. 



time, and under those circumstances, a man might become a Chris- 
tian who had slaves under him. How long he might continue to 
hold his fellow men in bondage, and yet be a Christian, is, how- 
ever, quite a different question." 

Dr. Barnes's " at that time, and in those circumstances,'^ is a 
bowshot beyond Dr. Scott's " greatly alleviate and nearly annihi- 
late," and yet there is a family likeness between them, that strikes 
you at a glance. 

" And yet be a Christian.'' Had Dr. Barnes been a professed 
Arminian, I should have understood him here, as referring to a 
threatening probability of "falling from grace:" but, as he 
claims to be a Calvinist, I see not how I can fairly interpret his 
language, unless I understand that these Christian slaveholders 
were only a sort of quasi Christians, after all ; admitted into "the 
kingdom of God" in some such way as "mourners" are admitted 
into the Methodist Church — on probation — and not to be allowed 
to continue there unless they shortly renounced their slavehold- 
ing. Perhaps Dr. Barnes would say — such quasi Christians would 
answer "at that time and under those circumstances" — and cer- 
tainly, all will agree with him, that this might just as well be, as 
that Christians should come into that kingdom at all, holding on 
to a sin worse than " piracy and murder." 

" Because they are faithful, that is because they are believers or 
are Christians — pistoi; the same word which in the beginning of 
the verse is rendered believing. It does not here mean, that they 
were faithful to their servants or their God, but merely that they 
were Christians." 

A strange sort of Christians these Ephesians must have been, 
who were not '^faitlfuV to, i. e., ^'believers'' in — for so Dr. 
Barnes interprets the word faithful as used by Paul ; and his 
marking it here with quotation marks, requires us to understand 
him as taking it from Paul's writing — their servants or their God. 
I do not know that I get exactly Dr. Barnes's idea — but a man 
who did not " believe in servants, or in God," I should call an 
Abolition atheist. Now, if these Ephesians, while they were slave- 
holders, were at heart Abolition atheists — the wonder is, not that 
they could enter the " kingdom of God" on no better terms than 
probationers, but that they could enter that kingdom at all. 

But, enough — though there are some eight pages of these Notes 
on this passage in 1 Tim., over which one might well make merry, 
were it not so sad a thing to see the Word of God thus handled. 

"What is the principle which lies at the foundation of all such 
exposition of Scripture as this? — I will give it you in the very 
words of the Expositor himself: "I believe that there are great 
principles in our nature, as God has made us ; which can never be 
set aside by any authority of a pretended revelation ; and that if 
a book professing to be a revelation from God, by any fair inter- 
pretation defended slavery, or placed it on the same basis as the 



The Historical Argument for Slavery, 19 



relation of husband and wife, parent and child, guardian and ward, 
such a book neither ought to be, nor could be received by mankind 
as a divine revelation." (Barnes's ^' Church and Slavery," p. 193.) 
And such notes as those I have quoted are the ravings of a man 
" doting" (noson, sick), 1 Tim. 6 : 4, from feeding on this philoso- 
phy, and in his delirium, sitting down to tinker the word of God, 
as wiser and holier than He. 

In commenting on Paul's expression "wholesome words," Mat- 
thew Henry makes this weighty remark : " We observe (1), The 
words of our Lord Jesus Christ are wholesome words; they are the 
fittest to prevent or heal the Church's wounds, as well as to heal 
a wounded conscience : for Christ has the tongue of the learned, 
to speak a word in season to him that is weary. (Isa. 1 : 4.) The 
words of Christ are the best to prevent ruptures in the Church ; 
for none who profess faith in him, will dispute the aptness or au- 
thority of his words, who is their Lord and teacher ; and it has 
never gone well with the Church, since the words of men have 
claimed a regard equal to his words, and in some cases a much 
gr eatery That last clause may have hQQn jprophecy, when Henry 
wrote it ; it is history now. 

Near the close of your article you write : " We believe that one 
of the providential calls on the Old School Presbyterian Church is 
to stand in the gap — to oppose unscriptural and fanatical extra- 
vagance in the North and in the South, in the East and in the 
West. Being on scriptural ground, we must not recede from it, 
either from fear of abolition clamour on the one hand or of slavery 
propagandist on the other." That is a noble Christian utterance. 
Let us thank God that the " old blue banner" does float " in the 
gap ;" for though there may be many a time-honoured standard in 
the field, there is none fitter to float "in the gap" than that which 
bears as its escutcheon " Christ's crown." 

" Christ's Crown." Methinks the host marshalled under such 
a banner should have loyal hearts, and willingly submit themselves, 
in all things, to his rule : fighting just where he has placed 
them, and just as he has given them orders, trying to catch his 
spirit, ever watching his eye. 

George D. Armstrong. 



t 



{ 



DR. VAN RENSSELAER'S 

THREE REPLIES 

TO 

DR. ARMSTRONG, 

ON 

THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY. 



THREE CONSERYATIVE REPLIES. 



KEPLY I. 

ON THE PROPER STATEMENT OF THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE OF 

SLAVERY. 

To THE Rev. George D. Armstrong, D.T>. : Your three Letters 
on Slavery have been read by me with great interest. They cover 
ground, not often distinctly included in the field of discussion, and 
they exhibit diversities of sentiment which rightly claim a candid 
consideration. 

The appellation of a " Conservative," which you have been 
pleased to apply to me, gives me satisfaction. I have always pro- 
fessed to be " conservative" on this exciting subject ; repudiating, 
on the one hand, the fundamental principle of fanatical abolition- 
ism, which makes slaveholding always and everywhere sinful, and, 
on the other hand, rejecting with equal conscientiousness the ultra 
defences of slavery, which constitute it a Divine ordinance, in the 
sense that civil government is "ordained of God," and which claim 
for it an undefined permanence.* 

I follow your example in making a few preliminary remarks. 

1. Some of our mutual friends, who are fearful of the agitation 
of slavery in our Church, have advised me not to reply to your 
letters. But if any danger was to be apprehended, the alarm 
ought to have been sounded before so much had been written from 
the other side of the line. It is quite probable that a brief notice of 
my brief review would have been allowed to pass without any answer. 
My position, however, is very much changed, after three long 
letters, containing an elaborate and skilful attack on the conserva- 
tive views prevalent in the Presbyterian Church, have been exten- 
sively circulated. I am glad that you concur with me in the 
opinion that a discussion of the points at issue between us cannot 
involve any agitation of the Church." 

I am a little surprised that, in the popular classification of " Abolitionist, Con- 
servative, and Pro-slavery man," you so quietly assume the appellation of the latter. 
Whether I admit the propriety of your proposed designation of " Philosophical, Phi- 
losophico-Scriptural, and Scriptural,'" you v/ill better understand after you have read 
my letters. The only true division is Scriptural and Unscriptural. 



24 



Dr. Van Rensselaer s First Reply, 



2. The whole truth pertaining to this subject, is of the utmost 
consequence. Slavery is among the prominent practical questions 

of the age. The destiny of several millions of human beings is 1 
more or less affected by the views of ministers and others, who, .| 
like yourself, possess an extensive influence in the formation of j 
public opinion. I cannot shrink from any lawful responsibility in 
candidly and boldly maintaining what I conceive to be the true 
philosophy and morals of slavery, as set forth in the Scriptures, 
and in the testimonies of the Presbyterian Church. No servant of 
Christ should exhibit a false timidity, when providentially chal- 
lenged to defend the right. 

3. Your candour and courtesy are models for my imitation. We 
undoubtedly entertain sentiments in regard to slavery, coincident 
in the main, but varying in importance according to the standpoint 
of different readers. Neither of us is a prejudiced partisan. Like 
yourself, although born at the North, I have lived at the South, 
and have learned, both there and here, to sympathize with my 
brethren who are involved in the evils of this perplexing social 
system. In Virginia I completed my theological education, was 
licensed and ordained by " the laying on of the hands of the Pres- 
bytery" of West Hanover, and commenced my ministry as a mis- 
sionary to the slaves, on the plantations of the Roanoke and Dan 
Rivers. These personalities are mentioned to show that we are, 
in some respects at least, on a level in this discussion. It is better 
for ministers of the same Church, who mutually appreciate each 
other's objects and position, and who endeavour candidly to arrive 
at the truth, to hold a Christian correspondence on slavery, than 
for boisterous and uncharitable partisans to break lances for vic- 
tory in a crowd of excited spectators. The present opportunity is 
a good one for mutual explanations, which may possibly produce a 
nearer approximation to agreement than is indicated by the line 
of separation marked out by some of your arguments. 

4. The discussion embraces the whole subject of slavery, and not 
merely the points which might by some be placed within the limits 
of Church authority. According to your judgment, "the points on 
which we differ, lie entirely outside of the proper range of ecclesi- 
astical action." I shall hereafter express my views in regard to 
this particular opinion, contenting myself, for the present, with the 
simple affirmation, that I write with all the light I can obtain from 
the Bible, and with whatever illumination the Spirit of God may 
graciously grant. Without discussing at present the precise range 
of ecclesiastical action, I shall endeavour to seek " the truth, the 
whole truth, and nothing but the truth." 

5. The general form of a discussion depends upon the positions of 
those who engage in it. When I discussed the subject of slavery 
in 1835, my object was to examine and expose the two fundamen- 
tal principles of ultra abolitionism, viz., that slaveholding is always 
and everywhere sinful, and that emancipation is an immediate and 



The Scriptu7'al Doctrine of Slavery. 



25 



universal duty. On the present occasion I am called upon to de- 
fend the scriptural doctrine against arguments, which seem to ad- 
vocate (in a comparatively mild form) ultra pro-slavery views. The 
Bible, as well as the Presbyterian testimony founded upon it, points 
to a clear, deep channel between these two dangerous passes. The 
Assembly's testimonies of 1818 and 1845, I regard as scriptural, 
harmonious, and, for the present at least, sufficient, occupying as 
they do, the true position between two extremes, and vindicating 
the opinions of those whom you rightly call " conservatives." 

I now proceed to the subject of your first Letter, viz., the pro- 
per STATEMENT OF THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE OF SLAVERY. 

Your statement is, SlaveJiolding is not a sin in the sight of 
God, and is not to he accounted an offence hy his Church'' 

My statement is, Slaveholding'^ is not necessarily and in all 
circuyn stances sinful.'" 

My statement was written currente calamo, without any inten- 
tion to propound an exact formula of the scriptural doctrine. Some 
might prefer to either statement one in these words : " Slavehold- 
ing, in itself considered, is not sinful," or "All slaveholding is not 
sinful ;" or " There is a slaveholding, which is consistent w^ith the 
Christian profession." I adhere, however, to what I have written ; 
because, whilst my original form of statement includes the lawful- 
ness of the relation, in itself considered, it also more clearly ex- 
presses the idea that circumstances may render the continuance of 
the relation wrong. It brings out, in my judgment, more scriptural 
truth on the subject than any of the forms mentioned, and espe- 
cially than yours. 

All admit that slavery, in a worse form than that which now 
exists in this country, prevailed throughout the Roman empire. As 
a system in actual operation, with its cruel laws and usages, the 
Apostles could have no more approved it than they did the despot- 
ism of Nero. And yet they nowhere condemned the relation 
itself as necessarily sinful. Despotism maintains a relation to civil 
government analogous to that which slaveholding sustains to the 
household. Absolute authority may exist in both relations, under 
certain circumstances, without sin. The inspired writers uniformly 
treat both despotism and slaveholding as forms of society which 
circumstances might justify. 

The Bible contains no formal statement of the doctrine of slavery, 
but enforces the duties growing out of the relation. A correct 
statement of the scriptural mode of treating slavery might be in 
these words : " All masters and all slaves are bound to perform 
their relative duties, arising from legal authority on the one hand, 
and from enjoined submission on the other." You had, undoubt- 
edly, the right to exhibit the doctrine of slaveholding in the more 

* I have substituted " slaveholding" for " slavery," in order to remove all ambi- 
guity in the terms. 



26 



Dr. Van Rensselaer's First Reply, 



abstract form, propounded in your volume. But, T think that the 
reader of your volume and letters does not receive the full impres- 
sion of scripture truth and exhortation, properly pertaining to this 
subject. Your unqualified statement that " slaveholding is not a 
sin in the sight of God," seems to me to fall short of a perfect for- 
mula, even from " the admitted, scriptural premises" adduced, and 
by me cordially acquiesced in. I submit a brief commentary on 
these " admitted, scriptural premise^," by way of developing the 
argument. 1. If " slaveholding does not appear in any catalogue 
of sins," this fact proves that it is not malum in se. It is also de- 
serving of notice that slaveholding does not appear in any enumera- 
tion of virtues and graces. 2. The Apostles received slaveholders 
to the communion, and so they did despots and their abettors in 
Cyesar's household. 3. Paul sent back a fugitive slave, and would 
also have sent back a deserter from the imperial army. 4. The 
injunction to slaves to obey their masters does not approve of 
slavery, anymore than the command to submit to "the powers 
that be," implied approbation of Nero's despotism. 5. The dis- 
tinctions of slavery in regard to the interests of Christian life are, 
like all other outward distinctions, of comparatively little impor- 
tance ; and yet the general injunction of Paul on this subject was, 
"Art thou called, being a slave? care not for it. But if thou 
mayst be free, use it rather.'' 6. The Christian doctrine of Paul 
respecting the mutual duties of masters and servants is clearly 
wholesome, and utterly subversive of modern abolitionism ; but 
whilst it proves that the relation is not in itself sinful, it does not 
sanction the relation as a desirable and permanent one. 7. Chris- 
tian ministers, who preach to the slaves insurrection, instead of sub- 
mission, and who denounce slaveholding as necessarily and always 
sinful, are on unscriptural and dangerous ground. 

In my judgment, your " admitted scriptural premises" do not 
warrant the unqualified statement of doctrine which you have laid 
down. My commentary is simply designed as a rebutter to your 
too broad conclusions. 

Slaveholding, in itself considered, is not sinful ; that is to say, 
it is not a r)ialum in se; or, in other words, it is a relation that 
may be justified by circumstances. When we say that the relation 
itself is not sinful, we do not mean, by the expression, a mere ab- 
straction ; for slavery cannot be conceived of apart from a master 
and a slave. But we mean that slaveholding, as a practical rela- 
tion, depends upon certain conditions for its justification. What is 
malum in se cannot be justified by any circumstances ; the law of 
God always condemns it. But slaveholding being among things 
" indifferent" in morals, it may be right or wrong, according to the 
conditions of its existence. Hence your definition, which excludes 
circumstances, comes short of the full Scripture doctrine. 

Three sources of your defective statement, as it appears to me, 
deserve consideration. 



The Scriptural Doctrine of Slavery. 



27 



1st. You have erred in placing the relation of master and slave 
on the same basis with that of parent and child. Your illustration 
assumes too much on this point. There are specific and funda- 
mental differences between these two relations. The marriage re- 
lation is divinely constituted ; it existed anterior to sin ; it is normal 
in its character and permanent in duration ; and it is honourable in 
all. Whereas the relation of master and slave cannot be said to 
be more than providentially permitted or sanctioned ; it originated 
as you admit, by the wickedness of " manstealing," and by a 
violation of the laws of God ; it implies an abnormal condition 
of things, and is therefore temporary ; and it must be acknow- 
ledged, that it is in discredit generally throughout Christendom. 
The two relations are quite distinct in their nature. That of mas- 
ter and slave is not, indeed, in itself sinful; but it cannot be looked 
upon with the complacency with which the parental relation is 
contemplated. The parental relation and slaveholding possess, of 
course, some affinities. They may fall into the same category, if the 
classification be made wide enough, for both belong to the social 
State and have relative duties. Or, if the classification be made 
even narrower, they may still be arranged under the same category, 
for both imply the possession of absolute power. But, if the classi- 
fication be into natural relations, and those relations which arise 
from circumstances, then marriage goes into the former category, 
and slavery into the latter. It is only within a certain compass, 
therefore, that we can reason from one to the other, without danger 
of pernicious fallacies. 

2. In the second place, your unqualified proposition that " slave- 
holding is not sinful," mistakes the scriptural view by implying its 
lawfulness everywhere and U7ider all circumstances. The relation 
of master and slave may be lawful in Virginia at the present time. 
But is it lawful in New Jersey, or in New England ? And will it 
always be lawful in Virginia ? I apprehend not. The good of the 
slave and of the community is the great law controlling the exist- 
ence of the relation. If a slaveholder were to remove from Vir- 
ginia into New Jersey, your proposition loses all its virtue, and 
collapses into error. Slaveholding is sinful by the laws of that 
State ; and even if there were no law prohibiting its existence on 
the statute-book, could the citizens of New Jersey become slave- 
holders under the plea that slaveholding is not a sin in the sight of 
God ?" Again, is it clear, that citizens in the Free States can 
always lawfully enter into this relation, when they remove into 
States where the laws sanction it ? Under the shelter of your 
proposition, they might do so ; but it is certain, that there are tens 
of thousands of Christians in the Free States, who could not enter 
voluntarily into this relation without involving their consciences in 
sin. Slavery, even in the Slave States, where it may lawfully exist 
at the present time, is abnormal and exceptional, and is to be 
justified only by circumstances. This your definition overlooks. 



28 



Br. Van Rensselaer's First Reply, 



8. In the third place, your statement passes by the testimony of 
the Old Testament dispensation. Moses found slavery an institu- 
tion in existence, and treated it as an admitted evil. Tolerating 
it under the peculiar condition of society, the laws of the Hebrew 
Commonwealth were framed with a view to mitigate its evils, to 
restrict its limits, and, finally, to discountenance it altogether. 
The distinction between the lawfulness of enslaving Israelites and 
Gentiles, with various other discriminating regulations, shows, that 
Moses took into view circumstances in his legislation on this sub- 
ject. Even under the Jewish dispensation, your statements would 
not have been received as a full and definite exposition of the true 
doctrine of slavery. My original statement that " slaveholding 
is not necessarily and under all circumstances sinful," accords bet- 
ter, both with the letter of the Old Testament dispensation and 
the spirit of the New, than does yours. 

What I especially insist upon, in a scriptural statement of the 
doctrine of slavery is, that the relation itself shall not be con- 
founded with the injustice of slave laws on the one hand, nor 
separated, on the other hand, from the providential circumstances 
or condition of society, where it claims a lawful existence. 

If you, therefore, ask, generally, why in my statement, I qualify 
the relation by the words "not necessarily and in all circumstances 
sinful," I reply, that the possession of despotic power is a thing to 
be justified, and for which a good reason is always to be given. 
Marriage is to continue as long as the race, and is in its own nature 
everywhere lawful. Not so with slavery. You, yourself, contend 
in your book, that it was originally wrong, and that the menstealers 
in Africa, and, inferentially, the slave-buyers in America, of that 
generation, sinned against God by their mutual trafiic in flesh and 
blood. Slavery does not, like marriage, arise from the nature of 
man. It exists only from the peculiar condition of the slave class. 
And, therefore, a scriptural statement must not ignore a reference 
to providential developments ; and it is right to characterize the 
relation by words which qualify its lawfulness. 

Again. If you ask how circumstances can make a relation sin- 
ful, which in itself may be lawful, I reply, that circumstances always 
control the moral character of those relations and actions, which 
belong in morals to things " indifi'erent," or adiaphora. Some 
things, like idolatry and manstealing, are mala in se, and can be 
justified by no circumstances whatever. Other things, like poly- 
gamy, were tolerated under the Old Testament dispensation, but 
not under the New. Other things, as slavery, were tolerated under 
both dispensations ; but neither under the Old nor the New dis- 
pensation was slavery recognized as lawful, apart from the circum- 
stances of its origin and the attending conditions. The circum- 
stances in the midst of which slaveholding finds itself, will always 



The Scriptural Doctrine of Slavery. 



29 



be an element to enter into its justification, or condemnation, at 
the bar of righteousness. 

Again. If you press me still closer, and ask more particularly, 
how the qualifying and restrictive language employed by me, is 
consistent with the language of Scripture in regard to the duties 
of masters and slaves, — which many interpret as giving full and uni- 
versal sanction to the system of slaveholding, — I reply,^rsf, that the 
mere injunction of relative duties, as has been already intimated, 
does not imply full approbation of a relation, which circumstances 
may for a time render lawful, and the duties of which require clear 
specification. The general duty of submission to the established 
government, does not prove that all despots are sinless in obtaining 
and in retaining their absolute power. Servants are required to be 
subject not only to good and gentle, but to froward masters, who 
make them suffer wrongfully. (1 Peter 2 : 18, 19.) This, however, 
does not make such frowardness and cruelty, on the part of the 
masters, sinless. And, generally, the meekness with which we are 
required to bear insult and injury, does not justify those wrongs. 
Doddridge says, "I should think it unlawful to resist the most un- 
just power that could be imagined, if there was a probability of 
doing mischief by it." But this cannot make what is wrong and 
pernicious in any particular form or circumstances, sacred, divine, 
and immutable. Polygamy, which was tolerated under the Old 
Testament, under certain conditions, was a relation of mutual rights 
and obligations ; but was polygamy, therefore, on a level with the 
marriage relation, and was it an institution that could be perpe- 
tuated without sin ? Certainly not. Nor does the exhortation to 
masters and servants imply anything more than that the prescribed 
relative duties are to be discharged as long as the relation may be 
lawfully continued. Secondly, the duties of submission, heart-ser- 
vice, &c., on the part of the slaves, and the corresponding duties 
of the masters, belong to my statement as much as they do to 
yours. The performance of these mutual duties is essential to the 
solution of the problem of slavery, and to the inauguration of the 
new circumstances which may make its continuance a wrong. 
Thirdly, slaveholding not being a malum in se, no scriptural ex- 
hortation against the relation under all circumstances, would have 
been consistent with truth and righteousness. Hence, neither des- 
potism nor slaveholding receives from the Scriptures the undiscri- 
minating anathemas hurled by modern fanatics. Their temporary 
justification depends on circumstances of which the rulers and 
masters of each generation must judge, as in sight of the Ruler 
and Master in heaven. Fourthly, The general spirit of the doc- 
trines and precepts of the Bible operates unequivocally and de- 
cidedly against the permanence of slavery in the household, or of 
despotism in the state. An emphatic testimony is rendered on 
the pages of revelation against these relations, whose origin is in 



30 



Br, Van Meiisselaer s First Reply. 



human sins and woes, and whose continuance is justified only by 
the public good. Instead of precise rules, which the wisdom of 
God has not prescribed for the eradication of all the evils of society, 
the Gospel substitutes sublime and heart-moving principles, which 
make the Christian "a law unto himself," and transform, through 
the Spirit, human nature into the image of the divine. 

After all, we both agree in the fundamental position that slavery 
may exist without sin ; that the relation, in itself considered, is not 
sinful. You prefer your statement of the doctrine, and I prefer 
mine. You imagine, in comparing my statement with Scripture, 
that you discern ''discord," and catch the sound of "quavering 
notes;" whilst, to my ears, your statement sounds like an old tune 
with unpleasant alterations, and withal, set on so high a key as to 
endanger falsetto in unskilful voices. It is my honest conviction 
that my formula approaches the nearest to the true doctrine of 
Scripture. 

The correctness of my form of statement is, I think, confirmed 
by several considerations. 

In the first place, this mode of stating the scriptural doctrine of 
slavery coincides with the testimonies of the Presbyterian Church, 

The General Assembly of 1818 uses the following language: 

^' We do, indeed, tenderly sympathize with those portions of our Church 
and our country where the evil of slavery has been entailed; where a great, 
and the most virtuous, part of the community abhor slavery, and wish its 
extermination as sincerely as any others; but where the number of slaves, 
their ignorance, and their vicious habits generally, render an immediate 
and universal emancipation inconsistent alike ivith the safety and happi- 
ness of the master and slave. With those who are thus circumsta^iced, 
we repeat that we tenderly sympathize. At the same time, we earnestly 
exhort them to continue, and, if possible, to increase their exertions to 
effect a total abolition of slavery. We exhort them to suffer no greater 
delay to take place in this most interesting concern, than a regard to the 
public loelfare truly and indispensably demands." 

Here, it will be seen, the doctrine of our Assembly is, that cir- 
cumstances control the continuance of slavery. This relation is 
justifiable, or otherwise, according as "the happiness of the master 
and slave" and "the public welfare" are promoted by it. 

The paper adopted by the General Assembly in 1845, by a vote 
of 168 to 13, assumes the same principle, and substantially adopts 
the form of my original statement. It says : 

"The question, which is now unhappily agitating and dividing other 
branches of the Church, is whether the holding of slaves is, under all 
circumstances, a heinous sin, calling for the discipline of the Church." 
p. 812. "The question, which this Assembly is called upon to decide is 



The ^criftural Doctrine of Slavery. 



81 



this : Do the Scriptures teach that the holding of slaves, iDithout regard 
to circumstances, is a sin p. 812. 

You perceive that the question is stated in words wliicli resemble 
very much the words of a "Conservative." Further: 

^^The Apostles did not denounce the relation itself iks sinful.'' ^'The 
Assembly cannot denounce the holding of slaves as necessarily a heinous 
and scandalous sin/' p. 812. "The existence of domestic slavery, under 
the circumstances in which it is found in the southern portion of the 
country, is no bar to Christian communion." p. 813. 

Whilst my statement of the doctrine of slavery coincides with 
the utterances of the Church, many will think that yours comes 
far short of it. Whatever added explanations may cause it to 
approximate to the language of the General Assembly, the naked 
words are as dissimilar, as a leafless tree is from one of living 
green. 

As you frequently quote Dr. Hodge, I also will take the liberty 
of exhibiting the opinions of the distinguished Professor, in their 
true connection with the point at issue. I ask your particular 
attention to these extracts from the Biblical Repertory, which 
might be extended, if necessary. 

"An equally obvious deduction [from the Scriptures] is, that slave- 
holding is not necessarily sinful.'' 1836, p. 277. 

" Both political despotism and domestic slavery belong in morals to 
the adiaphora, to things indifferent. They may be expedient or inexpe- 
dient, right or wrong, accordinc/ to circumstances. Belonging to the same 
class, they should be treated in the same way. Neither is to be denounced 
as necessarily sinful, and to be abolished immediately under all circum- 
stances." p. 286. 

" Slavery is a question of circumstances, and not a malum in se.'* 
" Simply to prove that slaveholding interferes with natural rights, is not 
enough to justify the conclusion that it is necessarily and universally sin- 
fuV p. 292. 

" These forms of society [despotism, slavery, &c.] are not necessarily, 
or in themselves, just or unjust^ but become one or the other according 
to circumstances." p. 295. 

Monarchy, aristocracy, democracy, domestic slavery, are right or 
wrong, as they are, for the time being, conducive to this great end [intel- 
lectual and moral elevation] or the reverse." p. 302. 

" We have ever maintained that slaveholding is not in itself sinful ; that 
the right to personal liberty is conditioned by the ability to exercise bene- 
ficially that right." 1849, p. 601. 

" Nothing can be more distinct than the right to hold slaves in certain 
circumstances, and the right to render slavery perpetual." p. 603. 

These quotations prove that Dr. Hodge unites with the great 
body of our Church, north and south, east and west, in limiting 
the lawfulness of slaveholding by the very terms of its formal defi- 



32 



Dr, Van Rensselaer s First Re'ply, 



nition, at the same time that he earnestly contends, with all who 
are on scriptural ground, that the relation, in itself considered, is 
not sinful. The "conservatives" of the Church everywhere uphold 
all the testimonies of the General Assembly in their true sprit and 
very letter. 

Another consideration, confirming the belief that my statement 
is the better of the two, is that it is 7nore philosophical in its form. 
The conditions of an ethical proposition relating to slavery, as 
furnished by yourself, are threefold. 1. The proposition must be 
in the usual form of ethical propositions. 2. It must be so ex- 
pressed as to require no explanations. 3. It should cover all the 
ground which Christianity covers. 

1. The usual form of ethical propositions in regard to adia- 
phora, or things indifferent, includes a reference to circumstances. 
Whether the proposition be expressed in a positive or negative form, 
is not of much account, provided the meaning be clear. Your own 
statement is a negative one ; but the diflSculty is that its meaning 
is not plain. If the word despotism, or tuar, be substituted for 
slaver^/ in our respective statements, I think you will see at once 
that your statement does not express the true idea, so well as mine. 
The proposition that " despotism, or war, is not a sin in the sight 
of God," is not a true ethical proposition. Because, like slavery, 
despotism and war seek their justification in circumstances. Cir- 
cumstances cannot be omitted from a philosophical proposition on 
" things indifferent." 

Your objection to my statement appears to be that it does not 
clearly admit the morality of slaveholding, but that it acquits the 
master with a sort of " whip, and clear him" judgment. This latter 
expression, if I understand it, means " strike first, and then acquit." 
Very far from such a rude proceeding is the intention, or tendency, 
of my argument. The force of it is simply to put the slaveholder 
in a position which demands him to justify himself before God, 
which every Christian ought always to be ready to do. I explicitly 
maintain that the relation may be a lawful one, and that the Chris- 
tian performance of its duties often brings peculiar honour upon 
the slaveholder, and calls into exercise some of the most shining 
graces of the Gospel. But slaveholding, although not malum in se, 
is not a natural and permanent phase of civilization. Like despot- 
ism or war, it is to be justified, or condemned, by the condition of 
things and the necessities of the case. It does not, in itself, imply 
an unchristian spirit, or unchristian conduct ; and hence our Church 
has always refused to recognize it as under all circumstances an 

offence" and " a bar to Christian communion." My proposition 
throws no suspicion, or reproach, upon any one who is in a true 
and justifiable position ; and the very fact that it includes circum- 
stances as an element in the solution of its morality, proves it to be 
philosophically sound. 



The Scriptural Doctrine of Slavery, 



33 



2. If the proposition, in order to be correctly stated, must re- 
quire no explanations, I think that my form has considerable ad- 
vantage over yours. " Slavery is not necessarily and in all cir- 
cumstances sinful" is a general proposition, containing, without the 
need of explanation, the ethical truths on the subject. Your pro- 
position. Slavery is not a sin in the sight of God," is liable at once 
to the doubt, whether it is intended to be a universal or a particular 
proposition ; that is, whether you mean to say, "wo slaveholding is 
sinful," or only that ''some slaveholding is not sinful." The needed 
explanation, against which you protest, is actually given by you in 
another part of your letter, where you say that your statement by 
no means " involves the idea that all slaveholding is sinless in the 
sight of God," or in other words, some slaveholding is not a sin. 
How this could be expressed with more rigid accuracy than in my 
formula of " slavery is not necessarily and in all circumstances 
sinful," it is for you to show. Why my formula does not more ex- 
actly express your belief than your own, which you would substi- 
tute for it, is also for you to show. Your statement fails to endure 
the philosophical test brought forward by yourself. It must have 
explanations, before the reader can even understand whether it is a 
universal or particular proposition. 

Permit me to add, that even some of your explanations seem to 
need explanation. For example, in your illustration about the despot- 
ism of France, you say that this despotism is " at the present day, 
demanded by the general good of the French nation," and then go 
on to say, that " the time may come when the general good will de- 
mand a different form of government in France.'' Here you pro- 
pound my doctrine exactly ; and if you will only allow this expla- 
nation about despotism to enter into your proposition about slave- 
holding, it becomes identical with my own. But inasmuch as you 
insist, that " every general proposition shall be so expressed as to 
bear examination," " apart from all explanation,'' you prove that 
your proposition, as it stands, is not a general, but a particular one, 
and that mine is really the universal and the philosophical propo- 
sition. Again ; your proposition demands explanation, as a prac- 
tical standard of right conduct as well as of sound philosophy. 
The proposition, that " slaveholding is not a sin," requires explana- 
tion, if you apply the doctrine to the first generation, who, as is 
generally believed, wrongfully purchased the slaves, and thus 
abetted manstealing and entailed this unnatural relation upon suc- 
ceeding generations. It requires explanation, if, anywhere at the 
South, the good of one or more slaves, and the glory of God, would 
be promoted by their emancipation. It requires explanation in the 
Free States, where slavery is prohibited by law, and where the 
welfare of society does not require the existence of this institution. 
On the other hand, my proposition that "slavery is not necessarily 
and in all circumstances sinful" expresses the truth without expla- 
nation. No proposition can be expected to define the circumstances 

3 



84 



Br, Van Rensselaer's First Refly, 



under which slavery in every instance may be justified or not. It 
is sufficient for the purposes of a general statement, to give slave- 
holding a place among things indifferent {adiapliora)^ and to imply ; 
that it is not a permanent institution, based, like marriage, upon 
the law of God, but one that owes its continuance to the necessities 
of the public welfare. \ 

3. If the proposition must cover all the ground covered by the 
doctrine of Christ and his Apostles, then I think that your statement 
again suffers in comparison with mine. This point has been already 
discussed. The substance of the scriptural doctrine, in my opinion, • 
is briefly this : First. Slaveholding, in itself considered, is not 
sinful ; or, it is not a malum in se. Secondly. It is a relation of 
mutual rights and obligations as long as it exists. And, thirdly. 
The general spirit and precepts of the Gospel are opposed to its 
perpetuity. I consider that my proposition, in this and in other 
respects, meets your ethical conditions better than your own. 

A third collateral consideration, in favour of my form of stating 
the scriptural doctrine of Slavery, is, that it commends itself more 
to the enlightened conscience of the Christian slaveholder. 

Christians, whose minds and hearts are imbued with the spirit 
of their Lord, cannot regard with complacency an institution, 
whose origin is in wrong, and whose continuance depends upon the 
inferior condition of a large class of their fellow-men. During 
my residence at the South, of three years, I do not remember of 
hearing any justification of slavery, except that which appealed 
to the actual necessities of the case. It was everywhere said : 
" The slaves are not fit to be free; neither their own nor the gene- 
ral welfare would be promoted by immediate emancipation." The 
lawfulness of continuing the relation under such circumstances 
could not be called in question. I am confident that the enlight- 
ened consciences of southern Christians prefer a definition of 
slavery which includes the providential aspect of the case. No 
abstract proposition, like yours, will place the vindication of slav- 
ery on high enough ground to pacify the consciences of those 
Christians who hold their fellow-men in bondage. 

But whilst the language of my statement of the doctrine really 
justifies, with a high reason, the lawfulness of the relation, if law- 
ful under the circumstances, the other advantage it has over your 
statement is in keeping the conscience awake to the obligations of 
improving the condition of the slaves, with a view to a restoration 
of their natural rights in a more perfect form of society. If slavery 
is only to be justified by circumstances, the inquiry must press 
itself upon the conscience of the Christian master, whether, in the 
first place, the circumstances and condition of society constitute a 
sufficient plea, in his judgment, for his present position as a slave- 
holder ; and in the second place, whether he is doing all he can, 
as a citizen of the state, and a member of the household of Christ, 



The Scriptural Doctrine of Slavery. 



35 



to remove all unjust enactments from the statute book, and to break 
down the barriers of intellectual and moral degradation which are 
in the way of ultimate emancipation. Although " slavery is not 
necessarily and in all circumstances sinful," it may become so 
under circumstances where the elevation of the slave concurs with 
other conditions in rendering his emancipation a benefit. 

I claim, therefore, that my statement of the doctrine of slavery 
surpasses yours, both in its power to relieve the conscience, if 
charged with the guilt of the existing relation, and in its power to 
alarm the conscience, if in danger of neglecting the whole duties 
implied in the relation. My knowledge of southern Christian 
society gives me boldness in placing this view of the subject before 
the minds and hearts and consciences of my brethren ; for never 
has it been my privilege to be brought in contact with purer and 
more devoted servants of our Lord Jesus Christ, than are to be 
found in the Southern States. With all deference, and in all con- 
fidence, I submit to them the truthfulness of the positions taken in 
this letter. 

There is still one more consideration that gives scriptural weight 
to my form of stating the doctrine of slavery, namely, its 'practical 
power to resist error. 

The fundamental principle of ultra-abolitionism is that slavehold- 
ing is in itself sinful. The only efficacious mode of encountering 
this fanaticism, is to show from the Bible, that it rests upon a false 
foundation. The doctrines that abolitionism cannot resist, are, 
first, that the relation itself must neither be confounded with the 
unjust laws which define the system^ nor with the inadequate per- 
formance of the duties of the relation ; and secondly, that slave- 
holding is not malum in se, but right or wrong according to cir- 
cumstances. This double-edged sword of truth will pierce to the 
dividing asunder of the bones of rampant abolitionism. Indeed, 
some of the distinguished leaders of that faction have virtually con- 
ceded the scriptural efficiency of these positions, and the great mass 
of people in the Free States will do homage to their truth. The 
doctrine that " slavery is not necessarily and in all circumstances 
sinful," is the contradictory of the abolition dogma ; and its estab- 
lishment in this very form, will most effectually arrest the encroach- 
ments of error, and vindicate the cause of righteousness in a per- 
verse generation. Your bare statement, however, that "slavehold- 
ing is not a sin in the sight of God," does not meet the case ; like 
a spent arrow, it falls short of the mark. It is a correct state- 
ment, to a certain extent; but it does not include providential cir- 
cumstances, which necessarily enter into the morality of slavehold- 
ing. As a weapon to do battle with, your proposition invites as- 
sault, without the power to repel. It lacks the scriptural charac- 
teristic of fighting a good fight. It carries with it no available 
and victorious force. It provokes the conscience of the North ; it 
lulls the conscience of the South. 



36 



JDr, V an Rensselaer's First Reply » 



This last sentence indicates an evil on the other extreme. Ultra 
pro-slavery is as much to be deprecated as ultra anti-slavery. The 
idea that slaveholding is a divine ordinance, and that it may be 
lawfully perpetuated to the end of time, is a monstrous doctrine, — ; 
derogatory to the spirit and principles of Scripture, to the reason 
and conscience of mankind, to the universal sway of Providence, ' 
and to the glory of Christian civilization. A distinguished slave- 
holder of the South, who owns several hundred slaves, and who is 
not a communicant in the Church, after hearing an ultra pro-slavery 
sermon, came out of the house of God, expressing strong disappro- 
bation of such sentiments ; and, stamping his foot on the ground, 
declared that he could not endure them. He added that his only 
justification, before God and the world, for holding slaves, was in 
the necessities of the case. The attempt to fortify slavery by ex- 
travagant and unreasonable positions can only do harm. Ex- 
tremists on one side always beget extremists on the other. Anti- 
slavery at the North has been the means of developing, to an 
extent before unknown, ultra pro-slavery at the South. The institu- 
tion is now claimed, by some, to be a divine ordinance, like mar- 
riage or civil government ; African bondage is sought to be justified 
by the original diversities of the human race ; and even the right 
eousness of the slave-trade itself is now openly vindicated in this laud 
of liberty and age of light. One strong objection to your state- 
ment of the doctrine is, that it seems to give countenance to er- 
roneous and exaggerated views. It will be accepted, I fear, by 
the ultra pro-slavery party, as a good enough statement to be in- 
scribed upon their banners. I cordially acquit you of any inten- 
tion to contribute to the propagation of extreme opinions. But 
ought not a Presbyterian minister, of your position and influence, 
to be arrayed against such sentiments, beyond the possibility of 
misconception? Hitherto, little impression has been made on our 
Church by ultraists on either side. We at the North are able, with 
God's blessing, to maintain the scriptural ground against anti-slavery 
fanaticism ; and we ask our brethren at the South to repel the 
irruptions of pro-slavery fanaticism with equal determination. In 
order to do this successfully, the South needs a more guarded 
statement of doctrine than the one you have propounded. That 
statement is practically inefficacious in resisting ultraism on either 
side. 

For these various reasons, I adhere to the belief that my original 
proposition on the subject of slaveholding, although not, perhaps, 
as perfect as it might be, is substantially correct, and is more 
scriptural and comprehensive than yours. 

Yours truly, 

C. Van Rensselaer. 



EEPLY IL 



EMANCIPATION AND THE CHURCH. 

To THE Rev. George D. Armstrong, D.D. :— I certainly did 
not expect, when I penned the paragraph which you find fault with 
in your second letter, to become engaged in a controversy about 

Emancipation and the Church." My standpoint was that of 
a private citizen, and I gave utterance to a sentiment, which, I 
supposed, would find a response in the bosom of any Christian 
slaveholder on his plantation. The idea of expounding the duty of 
the Church, in its oflicial capacity, was not in my mind at all. I 
ask you to look at the plain terms of the paragraph : 

" We regard the Christian instruction and elevation of the slaves 
as a means to an end, and that end is the recovery of the blessings 
of personal liberty, when Providence shall open the way for it. 
The higher end is the salvation of their souls." 

This paragraph simply declares the Editor's private opinion in 
regard to the providential antecedents which must necessarily exist, 
prior to the fitness of the slaves for the blessings of personal liberty. 
A Christian man ought also, as I supposed, to have the end in view, 
as well as to keep the means in operation. 

I might, perhaps, have fairly declined any formal reply to your 
second letter, on the ground that you transcended the real inten- 
tions of my statement. But inasmuch as the inference you have 
drawn from it may be a natural one, and is an opinion I really 
hold, and the arguments, by which you attempt to oppose it, are, 
in my judgment, unsatisfactory, I shall accept the opportunity of 
discussing what you seem to insist upon, — the subject of " Emanci- 
pation AND the Church." 

You begin by attempting "to strip the proposition" of what you 
are pleased to call its "adventitious support." I beg leave, how- 
ever, to insist that its Christian drapery shall remain upon it, and 
that it shall retain the firm support of its own Bible truth. The 
blessings of personal liberty have not been considered by me, in 
this discussion, in any other sense than including well-being. The 
whole morality of slaveholding depends upon conditions of social 



38 



Dr. Van Rensselaer's Second Reply, 



and public welfare, as I have endeavoured to show in my first 
letter. This is also the fundamental idea in the statement, which 
you desire to lay violent hands upon. My statement contains 
three ideas, which ought to be a sufficient guard against the im- 
pression that I was in favour of emancipation without an adequate 
preparation. These three ideas are, firsts a work of Christian in- 
struction among the slaves ; secondly^ their elevation, as a result of 
this instruction ; and thirdly^ a progressive condition of society, 
which, under Providence, would render emancipation practicable 
and beneficial. Could anything more be expected to render my 
meaning plain, and to include well-being as an element in the re- 
covery of freedom ? 

The expression ^'when Providence shall open the way for it," 
gives the latitude required in a question of this sort. True well- 
being was the precise thought in my mind ; for, as you justly re- 
mark, " Providence never does open the way for any change, unless 
well-being is to be promoted thereby." Judge, therefore, my sur- 
prise, when I find you not only imputing to me the opposite view, 
but also trying to rob my proposition of the support of divine 
Providence, whose glorious wisdom and power are so deeply con- 
cerned in the solution of this intricate problem. My view of the 
blessings of personal liberty magnifies well-being. Instead of ad- 
mitting, therefore, that my statement involves a petitio principii^ 
I hold that the real petition is from Dr. Armstrong to alter my 
proposition to suit his own views. This petition I respectfully 
decline. I cannot allow any one to banish God and his providence 
from my meditations on this subject. 1 choose to retain the whole 
paragraph, just as it was written, and more particularly the words 
you desire to exclude. 

The terms, "when Providence shall open the way," are used in 
exactly the same sense as the words " when God in his providence 
shall open the door for their emancipation," — an expression em- 
ployed by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, in 
1815, to convey the same idea on the same subject. The question of 
the time of emancipation is wisely left to the counsels of the Most 
High. AVhether it shall be long, or "before very long," depends, 
in no inconsiderable degree, so far as human instrumentality is 
involved, upon the views of those who, like yourself, occupy influ- 
ential positions in the southern section of the Church. But whether 
the time be long or short, it will be when " Providence opens the 
way," or " when God in his providence shall open the door." Not 
until then, will emancipation be consistent with the true enjoyment 
of " the blessings of personal liberty." On this particular point, 
there does not appear to be any real difference of opinion between 
us. 

We also agree in regard to the chief and higher end, which the 
Christian slaveholder should keep before him. The salvation of 
the souls of his slaves is the continual burden of a pious master's 



Emancipation and the Church, 



89 



heart. To be instrumental in bringing to his plantation-household 
the knowledge of the true God and of redemption by Jesus Christ, 
is the primary duty and privilege of the relation. No language 
can exaggerate the magnitude of this responsibility ; no enlightened 
J Christian conscience can resist the power of its appeal. 
* The point on which we differ is, whether the Church has any 
i authority to contemplate emancipation as a righteous and lawful 
end. This, although a comparatively inferior matter, is neverthe- 
less one of real interest and importance. And, in order that I may 
not be misunderstood, I request the attention of my brother, Dr. 
Armstrong, to a few brief explanations, 
i • 1. In the first place, an interest, on the part of the Church, in 
I emancipation, does not imply an undue regard for the temporal^ 
I above the spiritual^ welfare of the slaves. The chief duty is to 
preach ''Jesus Christ and Him crucified." No work on earth 
compares with that of religious teaching and preaching. The vast 
concerns of immortality should ever be uppermost in the aims and 
enterprises of the Church. And yet present well-being has such 
connections with eternal life, as to claim a just share of Christian 
interest in all generations. The position of the Presbyterian 
Church has always enabled her to preach the Gospel to both mas- 
ters and slaves. Ours is not an agitating Church. Her testimony 
on emancipation, as I shall presently show, has been uttered firmly 
and fearlessly ; but, unlike modern reformers, or other Churches 
less favoured of heaven, we have not magnified slavery above the 
higher interests of the kingdom of God, nor substituted vain 
clamour and restless agitation in the place of "righteousness, 
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." 

2. In the second place ; to keep in view emancipation as an end, 
which naturally follows the use of lawful means, does not bring the 
Church into the exclusive province of the State. Sl^ivery has both 
moral and political aspects. In the letter of the General Assembly 
to the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, in 1846, the following re- 
marks have a place : 

" The relations of negro slavery, as it exists in the States that 
tolerate it, are twofold. Chiefly, it is an institution purely civil, 
depending absolutely upon the will of the civil power in the States 
respectively in which it exists : secondarily, it has various aspects 
and relations, purely or mainly morale in regard to which the 
several States permit a greater or less degree of intervention." 

Our Church has always avoided interference with the State, in 
matters that are outside of her own appointed work. She has not 
claimed authority over the political relations of slavery ; nor 
attempted to extend her domain over subjects not plainly within 
her own province. It is only where slavery comes within the line 
of ecclesiastical jurisdiction — that is to say, in its moral and reli- 
gious aspects, that our Church has maintained her right to deliver 
her testimony, in such forms, and at such times, as seemed best. 
She has " rendered unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and 



40 



Dr. Van Rensselaer's Second Reply, 



unto God the things that are God's." Let no man attempt to de- 
spoil her of this joy. 

3. In the third place, the Church's testimony, in favour of eman- 
cipation, as a righteous end, must be distinguished from legislation 
over the consciences of men. Testimony differs from ecclesiastical 
law. It has different objects and purposes, and has a wider lati- 
tude of application. A Church judicatory may express its opinions, 
and attempt to exert its influence in a particular direction, within 
its lawful sphere, without pretending to make laws to bind the con- 
science. There are, indeed, duties devolving upon masters, whose 
violation is justly made the subject of discipline. But there are 
various views of slavery, which the Church, however desirous of 
their general adoption among her members, has presented only in 
the form of opinion, or testimony. Acquiescence in these views, 
as for example, those on emancipation, has never been made a test 
of Church communion. Dissenters from testimonies of this nature 
have no more reason to complain, than the minority in our public 
bodies have, in general, reason to complain of the decision of the 
majority on other questions, which come up lawfully for considera- 
tion. 

4. Emancipation, as an end to be kept in view, does not imply 
reproach^ tvJiere emancipation is, for the present, impracticable. In 
my first letter, I have endeavoured to show that slaveholding is 
not necessarily, and under all circumstances, sinful. There may 
be conditions of society where the continuance of the relation is 
among the highest demands of religious obligation. But even in 
such cases, an enlightened view of duty would, in my judgment, 
acknowledge emancipation to be an end, worthy of the Gospel of 
our Lord Jesus Christ. The two ideas of the lawfulness of the 
existing relation, and of the ultimate end of emancipation, are per- 
fectly consistent and harmonious. The maintenance of the latter 
idea conveys no reproach upon the scriptural view of slaveholding. 
It is antagonistic only to the unscriptural view of the permanence 
of slavery, as an ordinance of God, on a level with marriage or 
civil government. 

5. The time of emancipation, as I have already intimated, the 
Church has left to the decisions of Providence. Circumstances 
vary so much in society, that no rule can have a universal applica- 
tion. It is sufficient to keep emancipation in view, and to labour 
to secure its attainment as speedily as circumstances will permit, 
or " when Providence shall open the way." 

Having made these explanations in the hope of disarming pre- 
judice and conciliating good-will, I shall proceed to show, first, 
that my views of ''Emancipation and the Church" are sustained by 
the testimony of the General Assembly, whilst yours differ from it ; 
and secondly, that the testimony of our Church is sustained by the 
Word of God. 

The TESTIMONY OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY on emancipation is 



Emancipation and the Church, 



41 



important, as an exhibition of the general sentiments of the Pres- 
byterian Church on this great social question, and particularly a3 
showing its interpretation of the Scriptures. 

The first deliverance of our Church on the subject, was made in 
the year 1787, by the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, 
which was at that time our highest judicatory, and was in the act 
of forming our present ecclesiastical constitution. 

The deliverance is as follows : 

The Synod of New York and Philadelphia do highly approve of the 
general principles in favour of universal liberty that prevail in America, 
and the interest which many of the States have taken in promoting the 
abolition of slavery ; yet, inasmuch as men, introduced from a servile 
state, to a participation of all the privileges of civil society without a 
proper education, and without previous habits of industry, may be in 
many respects dangerous to the community; therefore, they earnestly re- 
commend it to all the members belonging to their communion, to give 
those persons who are at present held in servitude, such good education 
as to prepare them for the better enjoyment of freedom; and they more- 
over recommend that masters, whenever they find servants disposed to 
make a just improvement of the privilege, would give them a pecidiumj 
or grant them sufficient time and sufficient means of procuring their own 
liberty, at a moderate rate; that thereby they may be brought into society 
with those habits of industry that may render them useful citizens ; and 
finally, they recommend it to all their people to use the most prudent 
measures consistent with the interests and the state of civil society, in the 
countries where they live, to procure eventualli/ the final abolition of 
slavery in America'' 

In 1793, this judgment was reaffirmed by the General Assembly, 
and again reiterated by the Assembly in 1795, with the remark 
that " they trust every conscientious person tvill be fully satisfied 
with it.'' Its brevity, its comprehensiveness, its conservative tone, 
and its scriptural authority, make this testimony deserving of great 
attention. The General Assembly, in 1815, testified to the same 
effect : 

^'The General Assembly have repeatedly declared their cordial approba- 
tion of those principles of civil liberty, which appear to be recognized by 
the Federal and State Governments in these United States. They have 
expressed their regret that the slavery of the Africans, and of their de- 
scendants, still continues in so many places, and even among those within 
the pale of the Church, and have urged the Presbyteries under their care 
to adopt such measures as will secure, at least, to the rising generation 
of slaves within the bounds of the Church, a religious education, that they 
may be prepared for the exercise and enjoyment of liberty, when God, in 
his providence, may open the door for their emancipation.'' 

It could hardly be expected that a deliverance could be found on 
the records of our Church, so exactly concurring in thought and 
language with the extemporaneous statement contained in my brief 
review. 



42 



Dr. Van Rensselaer's Second Reply, 



In 1818, the largest Assembly that had yet been convened, met 
in Philadelphia. An abler body of divines, probably, never as- 
sembled in our highest judicatory. The paper adopted by them, 
on the subject of slavery, is too well known to require large extracts. 
It was drawn up by Dr. Ashbel Green, with the concurrence of 
Dr. George A. Baxter, of your own Synod. Dr. Speece, of Vir- 
ginia, was Dr. Baxter's fellow-commissioner from your old Presby- 
tery of Lexington. I only quote a few sentences from this cele" 
brated document. 

''We rejoice that the Church to which we belong, commenced as early 
as any other in this country, the good work of endeavouring to put an 
end to slavery, and that in the same work, many of its members have ever 
since been, and now are among the most active, efficient, and vigorous 
labourers/^ 

''At the same time, we earnestly exhort them to continue, and, ifpossi- 
hie, to increase their exertions to effect a total abolition of slavery. We 
exhort them to suffer no greater delay to take place in this most interest- 
ing concern, than a regard to the public welfare truly and indispensably 
demands." 

" We, therefore, warn all who belong to our denomination of Christians, 
against unduly extending this plea of necessity; against making it a cover 
for the love and practice of slavery, or a pretence for not using efforts that 
are lawful and practicable, to extinguish this evil. 

''And we at the same time exhort others to forbear harsh censures, 
and uncharitable reflections on their brethren, who unhappily live among 
slaves, whom they cannot immediately set free, but who are really using 
all of their influence and all their endeavours to bring them into a state 
of freedom, as soon as a door for it can he safely opened."^ 

The General Assembly, in 1845, took action on the specific 
point, whether slaveholding was, under all circumstances, a bar to 
Christian communion ; and in 1846 reaffirmed all the testimony 
uttered by preceding General Assemblies. 

Here I might rest the case, so far as your opposition to the re- 
corded views of our Church needed any demonstration ; but as you 
are iiow a Virginian, I cannot avoid inviting your attention to the 
testimony of the Synod of Virginia in 1800. Half a century has, 
indeed, passed by, and many of the precious men of God, who then 
served the churches from Lexington to Norfolk, have ceased from 
their labours; but the record of their opinions will endure through- 
out all generations. 

This subject was brought before the Synod of Virginia by a 
memorial on emancipation, from one of their congregations. The 

* The Assembly's testimony of 1818 was reaffirmed at the last meeting of the Synods 
of Pittsburg and Ohio. These two Synods, in tlie midst of which the Western Theo- 
logical Seminary stands, have been denominated " the back bone of Presbyterianism." 
The testimony of 1818 contains some expressions which might be advantageously 
altered ; but, with the proper explanations, it is consistent with that of 1845. The 
parts I have quoted have not been excepted to, so far as I know. 



Emancipation and the Church, 



43 



following extracts are from the answer returned by the Synod to 
the memorial. 

^'That so many thousands of our fellow-creatures should, in this land 
of liberty and asylum for the oppressed, be held in chains, is a reflection 
to us painfully afflictive. And most earnestly do we wish that all the 
members of our communion would pay a proper attention to the recom- 
mendation of the late Synod of New York and Philadelphia upon this 
subject. We consider it the indispensable duty of all who hold slaves 
to prepare, by a suitable education, the young among them for a state of 
freedom, and to liberate them as soon as they shall appear to be duly 
qualified for that high privilege; and such as neglect a duty so evi- 
dently and so powerfully enforced by the common principles of justice, 
as well as by the dictates of humanity, and the benign genius of our holy 
religion, ought, in our opinion, to be seriously dealt with and admonished 
on that account. But to refuse to hold Christian communion with any 
who may differ from us in sentiment and practice in this instance, 
would, we conceive, in the present conjuncture at least, be a very unwar- 
rantable procedure ; a direct infraction of the decision of the G-eneral 
Assembly of our Church, and a manifest departure from the practice of 
the Apostles and the primitive Church. 

"That it was wrong in the first instance to reduce so many of the 
helpless Africans to their present state of thraldom will be readily ad- 
mitted, and that it is a duty to adopt proper measures for their emanci- 
pation, ivill, it is presumed, be universally conceded. But, with respect 
to the measures best calculated to accomplish that important purpose, 
and the time necessary to give them full effect, different sentiments may 
be entertained by the true disciples of the Great Friend of man.'^* 

The Synod of Virginia probably entertain the same sentiments 
in 1858 ; and, if the occasion required it, would doubtless reaffirm 
this testimony, with the same love to Christ that originated it in 
the days of Waddell, Legrand, Rice, Alexander, Lacy, Hoge, Lyle, 
Brown, Baxter, Houston, &c., — a generation of revered men, 
" mighty in the Scriptures." 

It is clear that my statement concerning " Emancipation and 
the Church" is no novelty, but that it is regular, orthodox, old- 
fashioned, Presbyterian truth. 

Secondly. I further maintain, that this truth is scriptural 
truth ; and, that the Church has a right to propose, and to hold 
forth, emancipation as a righteous end, when Providence shall 
open the way. 

Here, I am met, at once, by your declaration, that 
The word of God contains no deliverance, express or clearly 
implied, respecting emancipation. Henco, I affirm, that the 

* Quoted from "The Hand Book of Slavery," by the Rev. John Robinson, of 
Ashland, Ohio. Published by John D. Thorpe, Cincinnati, 1852. This is one of 
the best books on the subject yet published, containing much valuable information 
and able discussion. 



44 Dr. Van Rensselaer s Second Beply, 



Church has no right to make a deliverance respecting it ; much 
less to set it before herself as an end of her labours." 

In examining this proposition, I venture to lay down the follow- 
ing, as a counter proposition in part, and as a more scriptural view 
of the subject ; viz. : The Church has a right to expound, and to 
apply, the word of God, in reference to all the relations of life, 
and to all the changing aspects of society. The exposition and 
application must, of course, be consistent with the spirit and prin- 
ciples of the Bible, but they are not limited to the mere word of 
its letter, nor to any general or universal formula of expression. 
From the nature of the case, exposition requires enlargement of 
scriptural statement, and application implies a regard to providen- 
tial developments and to the varying circumstances of social and 
public life. Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians was very different from 
his Epistles to the Romans and to the Hebrews, although they all 
contained expositions of the same scriptural doctrines ; and his 
Epistle to Philemon contained a new application, in the case of 
Onesimus, of principles, not previously so fully developed. The 
Church has, in every age, the right to expound the sacred Scrip- 
tures according to the light granted by the Holy Spirit, and to 
apply its interpretation to all cases, judged to be within its spiri- 
tual jurisdiction. 

I. Let us, in this search after Bible truth, glance at some of the 
views of the Old Testament Scriptures^ on slavery and emancipa- 
tion. 

A terrific statute flashed out from Sinai into the legislation of 
the Hebrew commonwealth. By the laws of Moses, " He that 
stealeth a man, and sellcth him, or if he be found in his hands, he 
shall surely be put to death." (Ex. 21 : 16.) The original man- 
Btealer, and the receiver of the stolen person, were both to suffer 
the penalty of death. The operation of this single statute would 
have forever excluded the existence of American slavery. 

Another provision, of some significance, shone with benignant 
beams of liberty. A fugitive slave, from a foreign country, was 
not to be sent back into slavery. (Deut. 23 ; 15, 16.) The Hebrew 
commonwealth was a city of refuge and an asylum of liberty to 
the surrounding nations. These two statutes stood, like Jachin and 
Boaz, at the vestibule of the Mosaic legislation on slavery. 

Hehreiu bondmen were held under a system, which resembled, 
in its nature, hired service rather than slavery, and whose duration 
was limited. Hebrew servants were emancipated on the seventh 
year, except in cases of voluntary agreement, and of children born 
under certain circumstances. In the year of Jubilee, liberty was 
proclaimed " unto all the inhabitants of the land." (Lev. 25 : 10.) 
In the fiftieth year, every Hebrew " returned unto his family," 
under the protection of a great festival statute.* 

* There are differences of opinion about the extent of emancipation, on the year of 



Emancipation and the CliurcJi, 



45 



The Old Testament dispensation made distinctions between the 
Israelites and Gentiles, in various parts of its legislation, and, 
among others, on slavery. Bondmen, purchased by the Hebrews 
from the Gentiles, might be held in perpetuity. Their bondage, 
however, as Dr. Spring remarks, partook of the character of appren- 
ticeship, rather than of rigorous servitude. 

The great fact remains prominent, that the bondage of Hebrews 
was temporary. Emancipation was continually in sight ; and the 
effect of their septennial and jubilee emancipation periods must 
have been a moral check and rebuke to slavery, under whatever 
forms it was tolerated. 

The long-existing middle wall of partition between Jews and 
Gentiles, was at length overthrown by Christianity. Thencefor- 
ward, all mankind stood in the new relation of a common brother- 
hood. " There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond 
nor free, there is neither male nor female ; for ye are all one in 
Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, 
and heirs according to the promise." (Gal. 3 : 28, 29.) Timothy, 
who, from a child, had known the Holy Scriptures, must have 
realized, with all pious Jews, that the spirit of the Old Testament 
no longer sanctioned the holding of even Gentile brethren, in per- 
petual bondage. All laws, peculiar to the Jewish economy, being 
now abolished, the New Testament, in its larger spirit and greater 
light, was brought into contact with the arbitrary slavery of the 
Pagan nations. Can it be believed that, under these circumstances, 
any well-instructed Jewish Christians would become voluntarily 
involved in the pagan system of slavery ? Heathen slaveholders, 
on their becoming Christians, received instructions, which gave 
new views of their obligations, and which tended to the ultimate 
abolition of the system. 

II. Christianity, in reforming the evils of society, inculcated 
general principles, of far greater influence than positive Mosaic 
laws. Before examining the true tendency of some of these scrip- 
tural principles, I shall ask your attention to the doctrine, which 
Paul expounded to the Corinthian slaves. " Art thou called, 
being a servant, or slave, care not for it. But if thou mayst he 
made free, use it rather." (1 Cor. 7 : 21.) 

The ideas that are fairly implied in this verse are the following : 
1. Religion is the most precious of all blessings to mankind. 

Jubilee. Some suppose that all the slaves, whether Hebrews or Gentiles, were 
then set free ; others suppose that not even all the Hebrews were emancipated. My 
own opinion is, that the Jubilee was for the Hebrews alone, and that it emancipated 
all the Hebrew bondmen. The only doubt is in reference to those Hebrews, who 
became voluntary bondmen, and whose ears were bored in token of their submis- 
sion. Bat Josephus, Maimonides, Calvin, jMichselis, &c., include these among those 
set free at the fiftieth year, and maintain that the Jubilee period gave to the He- 
brews universal emancipation. Even if an exception is to be made, of the compara- 
tively few cases of voluntary, ear-bored, bondmen for life, the argument is not mate- 
rially affected. 



46 



Dr. Van Rensselaer's Second Reply. 



The Lord's freeman may bear, with little anxiety, any external con- 
dition of life, even though it be that of bondage. Well may Pres- 
byterians rejoice that their Church, in conformity to apostolic pre- " | 
cept and practice, has preached the Gospel to the slaves, without 
unduly agitating points bearing on their temporal welfare. 

2. Slavery is an abnormal, and not a permanent, condition. 
Paul exhorted Christian slaves to seek emancipation, if within their 
reach, or if Providence opened the way for it. It is impossible to 
reconcile this inspired passage with the theory that slavery, like 
civil government or marriage, is an ordinance of God, to be per- 
petuated forever. " Use your freedom, rather," says Paul, ex- 
pounding the nature of slavery, and throwing the light of inspira- 
tion upon its anomalous character. When did the Apostle ever 
exhort husbands and wives not to care for the marriage tie, and 
to seek to be free from it, if the opportunity offered ? Slavery was 
in its nature a temporary expedient, differing from marriage, which 
is founded upon the natural and permanent relations of life. Sla- 
very is limited in its duration by the very conditions of its lawful 
existence. 

3. The Apostle teaches the Corinthian slaves that liberty is a 
higher and better condition than bondage. Although Christian 
slaves ought to be submissive to their lot, they have a right to regard 
liberty as a greater blessing. Calvin, our great commentator, 
says: "Paul means to intimate that liberty is not merely good, 
but also 7nore advantageous than servitude. If he is speaking to 
servants, his meaning will be this : While I exhort you to be free 
from anxiety, I do not Kinder you from even availing yourselves of 
liberty, if a [lawful] opportunity presents itself to you. If he is 
addressing himself to those who are free, it will be a kind of con- 
cession, as though he had said, — I exhort servants to be of good 
courage, though a state of freedom is preferable,* and more to be 
desired, if one has it in his choice." The Apostle evidently con- 
sidered liberty to be the highest state, offering an advance in civili- 
zation and true well-being, when Providence opens the way. 

4. Paul also maintains that emancipation is an object of Chris- 
tian desire, when it can be lawfully secured. Our own great com- 
mentator. Dr. Hodge, says : " Paul's object is not to exhort men 
not to improve their condition, but simply not to allow their social 
relations to disturb them ; or imagine that their becoming Christians 
rendered it necessary to change those relations. He could, with 
perfect consistency with the context, say to the slave, ' Let not 
your being a slave give you any concern ; but if you can become 
free, choose freedom rather than slavery.' Luther, Calvin, Beza, 
and the great body of commentators, from their day to this, under- 
stood the Apostle to say that liberty was to be chosen, if the oppor- 
tunity to become free were offered." 

* "Soit beaueoup meilleur" — *'is much better." 



Emancipation and the Church. 



47 



Now, if the great Apostle to the Gentiles taught that slavery is 
an inferior condition, and that, under right circumstances, emanci- 
pation is a lawful object of Christian desire, may not the Church 
teach the same things ? Whilst the highest and chief end is to 
lead the slaves to Christ and to heaven, is the Church compelled 
to abjure all other ends, relating to human happiness, elevation, 
and liberty? Far from it. Paul's doctrine to Timothy, upon 
which you lay so much stress, must not be expounded to the exclu- 
sion of Paul's doctrine to the Corinthians. 

Christian masters are informed, in this passage, that their slaves 
may rightly regard their bondage as an inferior state, which may 
be superseded in due time ; and the masters themselves are thus, 
incidentally, instructed to keep emancipation in view, and to pre- 
pare the slaves for it, when the providential opportunity arrives. 

Further. If emancipation be a good which slaves may lawfully 
desire, it is a good which all Christians may lawfully desire, and 
labour, according to their opportunity, to confer upon them. It 
is not, indeed, in such a sense an absolute good that it may not be 
abused, or that every class of people is always prepared safely to 
possess it. The same is true of the se]f-control which the law 
confers upon children, on reaching their majority. But is this any 
reason why children should not desire to be their own masters at a 
suitable age, or why all should not desire and labour so to train 
them that they may be duly prepared, at the fit time, to be invested 
with self-control ? 

You refer me to the explanations of your book on this passage 
in the Epistle to the Corinthians. The explanations I find to be 
twofold : First, you urge that slavery in Greece and Rome was 
far more rigorous than in our Southern States ; and secondly, that 
the Africans and Anglo-Saxons belong to difi"erent races; and that, 
on these two accounts, the doctrine of Paul has a less forcible ap- 
plication to American than to Corinthian slaves. I cheerfully 
yield to your argument any benefit which may be fairly claimed by 
a change of circumstances ; but I submit, in reply, firsts that 
human nature is the same in all ages and nations, and has natural 
desires to embrace every lawful opportunity to improve its outward 
condition ; secondly, that the Apostle propounds a principle, which 
has a real bearing upon slavery at all times and everywhere ; 
thirdly, that the light, liberty, and Christian appliances of the 
nineteenth century, are an offset against the supposed advantages 
for emancipation possessed by ancient Greece and Rome ; and 
fourthly, that your apology for not fully applying the principle to 
slavery now, as well as to slavery eighteen hundred years ago, is 
at least a virtual acquiescence, however feeble, in the truth of 
Paul's doctrine. — I find, indeed, on recurring to your book, that 
Dr. Armstrong expounds the passage admirably. You say : " Yet, 
if they can lawfully be made free, as a general rule, slaves had 
better accept their freedom ; for a condition of slavery is not to 



48 



Br, Van Rensselaer's Second Reply, 



be desired on its own account." p. 67. This is substantially the 
" Christian doctrine" I am advocating; but how a Christian minis- 
ter can reconcile this scriptural view of the subject with the silent 
and unchallenged expression of all sorts of opinions about the 
perpetuity, desirableness, &c., of slavery, I leave others to deter- 
mine. Slavery was no less a political institution in the days of Paul 
than it is now. Is the Church, therefore, to be perpetually silent, 
as though slavery possessed no moral relations to the law of God ? 
Is it exclusively a question of " capital and labour ?" Surely, the 
Church may follow Paul in his inspired expositions, although his 
Epistles contain some things "hard to be understood," and easy to 
"wrest." 

III. Paul's incidental interpretation of the law of liberty to the 
Corinthian slaves, is in entire accordance with the injunctions of 
Scripture. Slaveholding is not in itself sinful, but its existence 
binds upon masters and slaves mutual obligations, whose tendency 
is to abolish eventually the entire system. If the Scriptures enjoin 
what, of necessity, leads to emancipation, they enjoin emancipation 
itself, when the time comes ; if they forbid what is necessary to the 
perpetuity of slavery, they forbid that slavery should be perpe- 
tuated. 

How, then, do these divine injunctions to masters and slaves ope- 
rate against the perpetuity of slavery? 

1. Christianity requires the hind personal treatment of the 
slaves ; it removes the rigours of bondage, and insensibly assimi- 
lates the system to one of apprenticeship. Religious obligation is 
made the basis of all the duties of the relation. There is a " Master 
in Heaven," who rules over all ; who searches the hearts of all ; 
who weighs the actions of all ; and who keeps a record for the 
final judgment. "The Bible method," says Dr. Hodge, "of deal- 
ing with slavery and similar institutions, is to enforce, on all con- 
cerned, the great principles of moral obligation — assured that those 
principles, if allowed free scope, will put an end to all the evils 
both in the political and social relations of men." "First, the 
evils of slavery, and then slavery itself, would pass away as natu- 
rally and as healthfully as children cease to be minors." The kind 
treatment which the Gospel requires towards slaves, and the corre- 
sponding obligations of slaves to their masters, cultivate feelings 
of mutual regard, which open the way for everything good in due 
time. 

2. The effect of Christianity upon the sanctity of the marriage 
state is of the same preparatory nature. The law of Eden regulates 
social life everywhere ; it protects husbands and wives on the plan- 
tation in their relations to each other and their children. The hus- 
band is " the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the Church." 
"As the Church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their 
own husbands in everything." Eorcible disruptions of the mar- 



Emancipation and the Cliureli. 



49 



riage bond by sale, or by separation for life, are not authorized by 
the word of God. The Christian law of marriage holds inviolate 
the sacred privacies of home ; and the very difficulties of fulfilling 
the obligations of this law in a state of bondage, are suggestions in 
behalf of the natural state of liberty. 

3. The Gospel demands an adequate compensation of service, 
"The labourer is worthy of his hire," whether he be a minister of 
the sanctuary or a plantation slave. He is entitled to food, raiment, 
and shelter, and to whatever additional remuneration and privilege 
justice demands, in view of all the circumstances in each case. This 
doctrine of equitable compensation gradually unsettles the arbitrary 
or despotic nature of the relation, and provides a natural progress 
towards the coming end. 

4. Religion protects the avails of human industry ; it favours 
the right of every man to the fruits of his labour. The laws of 
the State deny, in general, the right of slaves to any property ; 
but the Bible enjoins that which is "just and equal." In practice, 
Christian masters generally acknowledge, in a greater or less de- 
gree, the justice of this claim. Such a practice is a scriptural 
auxiliary to final emancipation. Ideas of property enlarge the 
mind, cherish thoughts of independence, cultivate habits of in- 
dustry, and possess a stimulating power upon the general character 
of the slave, which fits him for the exercise of all the rights of 
liberty, "when Providence shall open the way." 

5. The intellectual and moral elevation of the slaves is a neces- 
sary result of Christian treatment and instruction. The Bible is 
the universal text-book for mankind. Religious knowledge intro- 
duces all other knowledge. Any system that depends for its sup- 
port upon the ignorance and debasement of the people, is doomed, 
by the law of Providence, to extinction. It was the wish of a pious 
king that every man in his dominions might be able to read the 
Bible. A Christian slaveholder, in like manner realizes the obli- 
gations to give instruction to the slaves in his household. Religion 
tends to knowledge and virtue ; and knowledge and virtue tend to 
liberty. 

If these statements are correct, obedience to the special injunc- 
tions of the Bible, on the subject of slavery, tends to, and neces- 
sarily terminates in. Emancipation. The Church, therefore, may 
scripturally keep in view this great moral result, to the glory of 
her heavenly King. 

IV. I add, that the universal spirit and fundamental principles 
of religion originate, and foster, sentiments favourable to the natu- 
ral rights of mankind. Born of the same race, inheritors of the 
same corrupt nature, heirs of the same Divine promises, partakers 
of the same redemption in Jesus Christ, subjects of the same re- 
surrection from the dead, and if saved, inhabitants of the same 

4 



50 Dr. Van Rensselaer s Second Reply, 



mansions of glory and immortality, the children of bondage are ele- 
vated by the Bible to a condition of co-equal spiritual dignity, that 
asserts, and must ultimately obtain, the full recognition of all their 
rights. 

Love to God and love to man, is the substance of the Divine re- 
quirements. "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself;" "All 
things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even 
so unto them." I am aware of the fanatical and unscriptural in- 
terpretations that have been sometimes put upon the great law of 
Christian reciprocity. I disclaim fellowship with unreasonable and 
false dogmas. But I think that the fair, scriptural interpretation 
of the rule of love bears irresistibly against the perpetuity of slavery, 
as well as against its rash or precipitate overthrow. Christianity 
seeks to adjust the condition of society, on a basis of universal 
brotherhood, fitted to accomplish the sublime purposes of " peace 
on earth, and good-will towards men." 

In all periods of her history, the Church has identified herself 
with the well-being of the masses. Without interfering with poli- 
tical relations, she has never renounced her interest in the highest 
welfare of the human race, both in this life and the life to come. 
At the present day, the Presbyterian Church, in preaching the 
Gospel to the heathen, expends a part of her resources in sending 
physicians to heal their diseases, farmers to assist in agricultural 
management, mechanics to work at printing-presses, teachers to 
instruct in schools. The principle actuating this general policy 
is, that the temporal well-being of mankind is, within certain limits, 
directly auxiliary to the preaching of the Gospel and the salvation 
of souls. So far as slavery is a question of " capital and labour," 
or so far as emancipation depends upon the laws of the State, 
ecclesiastical authority is impertinent ; but the moral results to be 
secured by the elevation and emancipation of the slaves, are within 
the true aim of the law of love and of Gospel grace. 

Can it be " extra-scriptural, unscriptural, and anti-scriptural," 
for the Church, besides seeking the eternal salvation of the slaves, 
to endeavour to introduce them to the blessings of personal liberty, 
" when Providence shall open the way ?" Certainly, nothing less 
than this result is to be desired, when Providence shall so arrange 
and prepare things, that the welfare of society and the claims of 
justice and mercy shall require the termination of involuntary ser- 
vitude. This supposes a great advance in the intellectual, moral, 
and religious condition of the slaves. Is it sinful to desire, and 
pray, and labour for such a state of things ? If so, I confess myself 
ignorant of the first principles of the doctrine of Christ. 

In bringing this long Letter to a close, I must ask your attention 
to one or two more things. 

If the Scriptures do not contain any deliverance on this subject, 



Emancipation and the Church. 



51 



either "express or clearly implied," then the Christian, as a citizen, 
has no divine rule to guide his conduct. Emancipation, if it comes 
at all, comes not as a desired end, but as a mere incident. The 
■whole question, with its moralities and economics, is left to the 
operation of natural laws. If not a scriptural end, it may, or 
may not, be reckoned within the range of private and public prayer, 
and of earnest Christian enterprise and activity. If " extra-scrip- 
tural, unscriptural, and anti-scriptural," might not some infer that 
it was sinful ? The motives that lead men to glorify God in 
labouring to remove social evils, are thus impaired in their force, 
if not rendered inoperative in this particular sphere. The effect of 
such doctrine in perpetuating slavery, cannot be concealed or 
denied. 

If I understand you, emancipation in Liberia is acknowledged to 
be a proper object of ecclesiastical action, for the reason, among 
others, that it passes by the question of " the general ultimate 
emancipation of the slaves" in this country. But is not the prin- 
ciple the same, wherever the result may be finally secured ? My 
statement leaves the time, place, and circumstances of emancipa- 
tion to the Providence of God ; whilst your view seems to admit 
the lawfulness of the end, provided that you yourself locate and 
define the land of liberty. Is not this a virtual surrender of the 
principle contained in your argument ? In your general senti- 
ments on Liberian Colonization, I cordially concur. 

One of the most painful things, allow me to say fraternally, in 
your Letter, is the low view of the natural rights of mankind, 
which pervades the discussion. I fully acknowledge the difficulties 
of emancipation, and most truly sympathize with my brethren, in 
Church and State, who are involved in the evils of this complicated 
system. But if we lose sight of, or depreciate principles, difficul- 
ties and dangers will increase on every side. Are there no eternal 
principles of justice, no standard of human rights, by which a 
system of servitude shall submit to be judged, and in whose pre- 
sence it shall be made to plead for justification ? Is civil liberty a 
mere abstraction ? Thanks be to God, the Presbyterian Church 
has been the advocate of freedom in every land and age. Long 
may she maintain this position of truth and righteousness, in the 
spirit of good-will to all men, bond and free ; and whilst she holds 
that slavery is not necessarily and in all circumstances sinful, may 
her testimony against the evils of the system, and in favour of 
emancipation, be clear, consistent, and unwavering, before God 
and the world ! 

Presbyterians at the North have remained steadfast in their 
integrity, amidst all the abolition agitation which has threatened 
injury, and even destruction, to the Church. We have deprecated 
this agitation, not simply on account of its own perverse nature, 



52 Dr. Van Rensselaer's Second Reply, 

but on account of its evil influence in provoking extreme views 
among our brethren at the South. The northern section of the 
Church, by its successful resistance to fanaticism, earnestly and 
fraternally appeals to the Presbyterians at the South, to remain 
equally true to the principles and the testimonies sanctioned by the 
unanimous voice of our General Assemblies, and by the higher 
authority of the Sacred Scriptures. 

I am yours, truly, 

C. Van Rensselaer. 



REPLY III. 



ON THE HISTORICAL AEGUMENT FOR SLAVERY. 

To THE Rev. George D. Armstrong, D.D, :~History teaches 
important lessons ; but I have several objections to the historical 
view presented in your letter as the basis of instruction. 

1. One of the forms of historical statement, liable to misconcep- 
tion, is that the Apostles maintained -without qualification, that 
" slaveholding is not a sin,'' This mode of stating the doctrine is 
not, in my opinion, precisely scriptural. It leaves the impression 
that slavery is, always and everywhere, a lawful institution. All 
that the Scriptures authorize us to affirm, as I have endeavoured 
to show in my first letter, is that slaveholding is not a malum in se, 
or in other words, that it is right or wrong, according to circum- 
stances. As this point lies at the basis of your historical sketch, I 
have deemed it important to notice it at the very beginning. 

2. In the second place, the assertion that " slaver^/ continued to 
exist everywhere^'' is no evidence that Christianity everywhere ap- 
proved of it. Despotism and war prevailed in early times ; and 
although they still continue to exist throughout the world, the spirit 
of true religion has always been in opposition to their perpetuity. 
The simple fact of the long continuance of such an institution as 
slavery cannot be interpreted into a divine warrant. 

3. In the third place, your historical statement entirely over- 
looks the early influence of Christianity upon slavery. 

The religion of Christ was, for a long period, subjected to fierce 
persecutions, and rejected from the councils of the Roman Em- 
pire. When it finally secured a temporary triumph under Con- 
stantine, corruption almost simultaneously began its work. There 
are, nevertheless, many evidences of an advancing social and poli- 
tical movement, in the mitigation of the evils of slavery and in 
the measures of emancipation. From the first, " the humane 
spirit of our religion struggled with the customs and manners of 
this world, and contributed more than any other circumstance, to 
introduce the practice of manumission,"* Christianity ameliorated 
the condition of slaves under the Roman Government, inclined 
Constantino to render their emancipation much easier than for- 
merly, and awakened a religious interest in the subject. "As slaves 
were formerly declared to be emancipated in the temple of the 

* Robertson. 



64 



Dr. Van Rensselaer's Third Reply. 



goddess Feronia, so afterwards, in accordance with the decrees of 
Constantino, they were throughout the Roman Empire, set free in 
the churches.''^ Sozomen, speaking of Constantino, says: " In re- 
ference to the bestowment of the better liberty (viz., Roman citi- 
zenship), he laid down these laws, decreeing that all^ emancipated 
in the Qhurch U7ider the direction of the priests, should enjoy 
Roman citizenship. "f The Church sometimes paid for the ransom 
of slaves, especially for slaves or captives subjected to heathen or 
barbarian masters. " Out of the legitimate work of the faithful," 
say the Apostolic Constitutions, "deliver the saints, redeem the 
slaves, the captives/ 'J &c. Ignatius alludes likewise to the redeemed 
slaves at the expense of the community.§ Clement of Rome also 
speaks of Christians who carried devotion so far as to sell them- 
selves to redeem others from slavery.|| 

Large numbers of slaves were emancipated in the first ages of 
Christianity. One of our own distinguished writers, whose posi- 
tion, intellectual habits, and course of investigation have enabled 
him to give much attention to this subject, has the following re- 
marks : 

Before the advent of Christianity, no axe had ever been laid at the 
root of slavery ; no philosopher had denounced it, and it does not appear 
to have been considered by any as an evil to be repressed. Nor did the 
apostles teach differently, but distinctly laid down rules for the conduct 
of master and slave ; thereby clearly recognizing the relation, without 
denouncing it as in itself sinful. Their Master's instructions were in- 
tended to make men what they should be, and then every institution, 
every law, and every practice inconsistent with that state, would fall 
before it. If a community of slaveholders, under Christian instruction, 
were gradually tending to the point of general emancipation, both masters 
and slaves would gradually be fitting for so great a change in their relative 
condition. It would be a subject of great interest to trace, in the early 
ages of Christianity, its influences upon the institution of slavery, so 
much in contrast with the movements or influences of paganism. During 
the first four or five centuries of the Christian era, emancipation of slaves 
hy converts to Christianity took place upon a large and progressively in- 
creasing scale, and continued until the occurrence of political events, the 
invasion of barbarians, and othbr causes, agitated the whole Christian 
world, and shook the very foundations of the social systems in which 
Christianity had made most progress. When Christianity sank into the 
darkness of the middle ages, the progress of emancipation ceased, because 
the influence which produced it ceased during that period to operate. The 
annals of emancipation in these primitive ages, if materials were extant 
for a full narrative, would be of extraordinary interest, and would fully 
reveal the efi"ects of our Saviour's precepts when brought to bear upon 
the hearts of men in their true spirit, even where the letter did not apply. 
Under paganism, slavery could never come to an end : under the conti- 
nual light of Christianity, it hastens to an inevitable end, but by that 



* Can. 64, Cod. Eccl. Africanse. f Sozomenus, lib. 1 ; Hist. Eccl. Chap. IX. 

X IV. 9. § Ep. ad Polyc. c. 4. |1 1 Ep. ad Cor. 



Tlie Historical Argument for Slavery, 



55 



progress and in that mode which is best both for master and slave ; both 
being bound to love each other, until the door of emancipation is fully 
open without injury to either/^* 

In addition to these interesting statements from Mr. Colwell, I 
offer to your consideration the following extracts from the admirable 
work of the Rev. Stephen Chastel, of Geneva, on the " Charity 
of the Primitive Churches. "f 

Between the Christian master and slave was no religious distinction ; 
they came into the same sanctuary to invoke the same God, to pray, to 
sing together, to participate in the same mysteries, to sit at the same table, 
to drink of the same cup, and to take part in the same feast. How should 
this community of worship not have profoundly modified their mutual re- 
lations ? How could the master have continued to see in his slave that 
thing which the Roman law permitted him to use and to abuse ? Also, 
whatever might still be the force of habit and of manners, there were 
rarely seen in the Christian houses those masters, still less those pitiless 
mistresses, such as Seneca and Juvenal have painted to us ] the slave, 
there, had to fear neither the cross, nor tortures, nor abandonment in 
sickness, nor to be thrown off in his old age ; he had not to fear that he 
should be sold for the amphitheatre, or for some one of those infamous 
occupations which the Church reproved, and from which she struggled, at 
every price, to rescue her children. 

"Finally, a devoted and faithful slave always had, in a Christian house, 
the hope of recovering his liberty. It was not rare, without doubt, to see 
Pagans enfranchise their slaves; some even did it from motives of grati- 
tude or attachment ; but ordinarily necessity, caprice, vanity, often even 
the most sordid calculations alone presided over the emancipation of slaves, 
and these miserable creatures, cast almost without resource into the midst 
of a society whose free labour found so little encouragement and employ- 
ment, hardly used their liberty except to do evil, and went for the most 
part to increase the crowd of proletarians and of beggars, so that it is not 
astonishing if the emperors had attempted, though without success, to 
limit, by their laws, the right of enfranchising. As to the Church, when 
she encouraged it, it was not as an interest, but as a favour; she exhorted 
the masters to liberate the slave as often as he was in a state to support 
himself. But the enfranchisement was not an abandonment; the Chris- 
tian remained the patron, in the best sense of that word, of those whom 
he had ceased to be the master of, and, in case of misfortune, the freed 
man found an almost sure resource in the aid of his brothers. The Church, 
which, by its moral influence, had worked to render him worthy of liberty, 
continued to protect him after he had attained it. The emancipation of 
slaves at this day would be less difi&cult and less dangerous if it was always 
done in this spirit."^ 

* New Themes for the Protestant Clergy, by Stephen Colwell, Esq. 
t Translated by Professor Matile, and published by J. B. Lippincott & Co., Phila- 
delphia, 1857. 

The Church has been thus unjustly accused of having, by the imprudence of her 
emancipations of slaves, caused the plague of pauperism. Manumission had been 
used with much less discretion at other epochs of Roman society. The one hundred 
thousand freedmen who, as early as from 240 to 210 previous to our era had been 



56 



Dr. Van Rensselaer's Third Reply* 



The " correctness" of these brief accounts of the early impression 
of Christianity upon slavery, "no one, I presume, will call in ques- 
tion ;" and they stand in delightful contrast with the injurious and 5 
unhistorical representations, quoted in your Letter from Dr. Hop- ' 
kins, Bishop of the Episcopal Church of Vermont. 

4. I take exception to the statement that slaves were always 
" held, without any reproach, even hy the bishops and clergy,'' 
down to the period of the abolition of slavery in Europe. Undoubt- 
edly, slaves might have been held, without any reproach, then as 
now, when the circumstances of society and the welfare of the 
slaves justified the continuance of the relation. The fact that, 
under Constantine, emancipation took place in the churches, shows 
that the act was regarded as peculiarly congenial with the spirit 
and principles of religion. Ward, in his Law of Nations, observes 
that "it is of little consequence to object that the custom of slavery 
remained for a great length of time, or that the Church itself was 
possessed of numbers of slaves. The custom of enfranchisement 
was the effect, chiefly, of pious and Christian motives, and the 
example was generally set hy the ministers of religion 

The same writer observes, in reference to later times, that, " in 
the opinion of Grotius, Christianity was the great and almost only 
cause of abolition. The professed and assigned reasons for most 
of the charters of manumissions, from the time of Gregory the 
Great [A.D. 600] to the thirteenth century, were the religious 
and pious considerations of the fraternity of men, the imitation of 
the example of Christ, the love of our Maker, and the hope of re- 
demption. Enfranchisement was frequently given on a deathbed, 
as the most acceptable service thiit could be offered ; and when the 
sacred character of the priesthood came to obtain more universal 
veneration, to assume its functions was the immediate passport to 
freedom," 

History does not at all warrant the assertion that slaves have 
been always held " without any reproach." From the earliest 
period, the anomalous character of the relation, and its attending 
evils, have been recorded on the impartial, but obscure annals of 
the past. Not even in the dark middle ages was slavery ranked 
among irreproachable and permanent institutions. 

5. Another error in your historical sketch is, that, when the 
practice of slavery "died out" in Europe, the change was ''''through 
the operation of worldly causes," It is surprising that two bishops 
of the Church should agree upon a statement, disowning the con- 
admitted to the privilege of citizenship, the slaves liberated en masse by the alternating 
politics of Marius and Sylla, the thousands of them vi^ho under the republic were 
daily liberated, either by will, to do honour to the funeral of their master, or by neces- 
sity, there being no food for them, or by revenge, to defeat the eagerness of creditors; 
all those freed men, finally, who in Cicero's times were in a majority in the urban and 
rural tribes of Rome, formed elements much more threatening to the social well-being 
than were subsequently those freed by charity. (Moreau-Christophe, Duprobl. de la 
mish-e, Vol. I, p. 80, etc.) 



The Eistorical Argument for Slavery. 57 



nection between Christianity and the removal of this great social 
evil. The changes introduced into society, in the progress of ad- 
vancing civilization, have been hitherto ascribed by all Christian 
writers to the power of Christianity itself. But in the nineteenth 
century, the theory is advanced, that worldly causes," and not 
religion, have been the efficient agents in the extinction of slavery ! 
If this be true in all previous ages, the inference is that it will be 
so in all time to come. This is a " short and easy method" of 
establishing ultra pro-slavery doctrine. But is the statement true? 
In addition to the testimony already adduced, which has a bearing 
upon this point, I venture to ask your attention to the following 
remarks, contained in the volumes of Mr. Bancroft, the historian. 
You will observe the prominence given to religion^ by this distin- 
guished writer. 

^'In defiance of severe penalties, the Saxons sold their own kindred 
into slavery on the continent ; nor could the traffic be checked, till reli- 
gioriy pleading the cause of humanity, made its appeal to conscience."^ 

What though the trade was exposed to the censure of the ChurcJi, 
and prohibited by the laws of Venice ? It could not be effectually 
checked, till, by the Venitian law, no slave might enter a Venitian ship, 
and to tread the deck of an argosy of Venice, became the privilege and 
the evidence of freedom." 

The spirit of the Christian religion would, before the discovery of 
America, have led to the entire abolition of the slave-trade, but for the 
hostility between the Christian Church and the followers of Mahomet. 
In the twelfth century, Pope Alexander III, true to the spirit of his office, 
which, during the supremacy of brute force in the middle ages, made of 
the chief minister of religion the tribune of the people and the guardian 
of the oppressed, had written, that ^ Nature having made no slaves^ all 
men have an equal right to liberty ' "f 

''The amelioration of the customs of Europe had proceeded from the 
influence of religion. It was the clergy who had broken up the Christian 
slave-markets at Bristol and at Hamburg, at Lyons and at Rome. At 
the epoch of the discovery of America, the moral opinion of the civilized 
world had abolished the traffic of Christian slaves ; and was fast demand- 
ing the emancipation of the serfs: but bigotry had favoured a compro- 
mise with avarice ; and the infidel was not yet included within the pale of 
humanity. "J 

" The slave-trade between Africa and America was, I believe, never 
expressly sanctioned by the See of Rome. The spirit of the Roman 
Church was against it. Even Leo X, though his voluptuous life, making 
of his pontificate a continued carnival, might have deadened the senti- 
ments of humanity and justice, declared, that ' not the Christian reli- 
gion only J hut nature herself ^ cries out against the state of slavery.' "§ 

These few extracts are sufficient, I think, to prove that some- 
thing more than " worldly causes" have contributed to remove 



* History of the United States, I, 162. 
X Ibid. 165. 



t Ibid. 163. 
§ Ibid. 172. 



58 



Br. Van Rensselaer's Third Reply. 



slavery from European civilization. As long as Christianity exists 
upon the earth, and the consciences of its disciples are enlightened , 
by the Spirit, a power will always be at work, higher than "worldly j 
causes," tending to universal emancipation. Even these "worldly 
causes," to which allusion is made, are more or less controlled by 
the truth and influences of the Gospel. \ 

6. I turn to another error, viz. : " It was not until the latter 1 
part of the eighteenth century that a doubt was expressed, on 
either side of the Atlantic^ in relation to the perfect consistency of 
slavery with the precepts of the Gospel." 

If I mistake not, the evidence, already adduced, will occasion 
very serious doubts in regard to the truth of the proposition, so 
far as it relates to the other side of the Atlantic. Let us, for the 
present, consider whether, on this side of the Atlantic, slavery and 
the Gospel were, always and everywhere, reckoned to be natural 
allies. 

The Puritans did, it is true, consider themselves justified by the 
Old Testament in retaining Indian captives as bondsmen, according / 
to the policy of the Israelites towards the Pagan nations. The 
Indian prisoners were few in number, and their case was a per- 
plexing one. We do not justify Puritan reasoning on this subject; 
it was the reasoning of the day, both in Europe and in other parts 
of our own country. At that period, even white men were sold 
into slavery in Virginia. In the midst of such moral obtuseness, 
there were not wanting some signs of more correct views of human 
bondage, in New England. The following extracts are from Mr. 
Bancroft's history. The first paragraph relates to the sailing of 
the first vessel, owned in part by a member of the Church in 
Boston, to engage in the slave-trade. 

"Throughout Massachusetts, the cry of justice was raised against the 
owners as malefactors and murderers. Richard Saltonstall felt himself 
moved by his duty as a magistrate, to denounce the act of stealing ne- 
groes as ' expressly contrary to the law of God and the law of the coun- 
try the guilty men were committed for the offence ; and, after advice 
with the elders, the representatives of the people, bearing ^ witness against 
the heinous crimes of manstealing,' ordered the negroes to he restored^ at 
the piihlic chargCj ' to their own country , with a letter expressing the in- 
dignation of the General Court' at their wrongs/'* [This was in the year 
1646.] 

''When George Fox visited Barbadoes, in 1671, he enjoined it upon the 
planters, that they should ' deal mildly and gently with their negroes ; 
and that after certain years of servitude, they should make them free/ 
The idea of George Fox had been anticipated by the fellow-citizens of 
Gorton and Roger Williams. Nearly twenty years had then elapsed 
since the representatives of Providence and Warwick, perceiving the 
disposition of people in the colony ' to buy negroes,' and hold them ' as 
slaves forever/ had enacted that no ' Mack mankind,^ should, ' hy cove- 



* Bancrofts History, I, 174. 



The Historical Argument for Slavery, 



59 



nant, bond, or otherwise/ he held to perpetual service ; the master, ^ at 
the end of ten years, shall set them free, as the manner is with English 
servants ; and that man that will not let' his slave ' go free, or shall 
sell him away, to the end that he may be enslaved to others for a longer 
time, shall forfeit to the colony forty pounds. Now, forty pounds was 
nearly twice the value of a negro slave. The law was not enforced; 
but the principle lived among the people.^ 

" The thought of general emancipation early presented itself. Massa- 
chusetts, where the first planters assumed to themsleves ' a right to treat 
the Indians on the foot of Canaanites and Amalekites/ was always op- 
posed to the introduction of slaves from abroad ; and in 1701, the town 
of Boston instructed its representatives, ^ to put a period to negroes being 
slaves.^ 

It thus appears that, up to the beginning of the last century, 
there was a great deal of " doubt" in New England, in regard to 
" the perfect consistency of slavery with the precepts of the Gos- 
pel." Public opinion, however, seems to have afterwards relapsed 
into much indifference, until near the period of the Revolution, 
when Dr. Hopkins, of Newport, published a pamphlet on the 

Slavery of the Africans, showing it to be the duty of the Ameri- 
can Colonies to emancipate all the African slaves. "J Dr. Hopkins 
apologizes for the want of conscience exhibited in New England by 
the "ignorance" of the owners of slaves ; and "although this has 
been a very criminal ignorance, yet professors of religion, and real 
Christians, may have lived in this sin through an ignorance con- 
sistent with sincerity, and so as to be acceptable to God, through 
Jesus Christ, in their devotions," &c. Public attention now be- 
came much directed to slavery, both at the North and at the 
South. 

The southern colonies had repeatedly remonstrated against the 
slave-trade. Judge Tucker, in his Notes on Blackstone, has col- 
lected a list of no less than twenty-three acts, passed by Virginia, 
having in view the repression of the importation of slaves. The 
motives were various, political as well as moral. In 1772, Virginia 
sent a petition to the throne, declaring, among other things, that 
" the importation of slaves into the colonies from the coast of 
Africa, hath long been considered a trade of great inhumanity.'' 

7. A very serious error in your letter, consists in attributing to 
Infidelity the awakened interest in Great Britain and the United 
States, in the suppression of the slave-trade and the abolition of 
slavery. 

As if " worldly causes" were not low enougli to account for the 
extinction of domestic servitude, Infidelity is summoned from the 
depths, as another ruling agent. This part of the solution of the 
question is your own, to which the instructions of Bishop Hopkins, 
allow me to say, naturally tended. 

I ask your attention to the fact, that the period in which the 

* Ibid. I, 174. t Ibid. Ill, 408. X Published in 1776. 



60 



Br. Van Rensselaer's Third Reply. 



greatest masters of Infidelity were prominent actors, was the very 
period in which the slave-trade was carried on with the greatest 
energy, and the conscience of the whole world slumbered most 
profoundly over emancipation. From the year 1700, till the 
American Revolution, more negroes had been exported from 
Africa than ever before. During this interval, lived Shaftesbury, 
Bolingbroke, Hume, Voltaire, Rousseau, and the French Encyclo- 
pagdists, great and small. Mr. Bancroft remarks, with his usual 
historical accuracy, "The philosophy of that day furnished to the 
African no protection against oppression." England, under the 
ministry of Bolingbroke, and his successors in office, openly advo- 
cated the slave-trade. It was a time of infidelity, of Arian and 
Deistical encroachment, and of ecclesiastical domination. It was 
a fit time for the climax of the slave-trade. 

" Loud and perpetual o'er the Atlantic waves, 
For guilty ages, rolled the tide of slaves ; 
A tide that knew no fall, no turn, no rest — 
Constant as day and night, from East to West, 
Still wid'ning, deep'ning, swelling in its course, 
With boundless ruin and resistless force." 

This state of active kidnapping in Africa, received its first check, 
not from Infidelity, but from the religion and patriotism of the con- 
federated Colonies of North America. The delegates in Congress, 
without being specially empowered to do so, passed and promul- 
gated, on the 6th of April, 1776, several months before the Decla- 
ration of Independence, a resolution that no slaves should be im- 
ported into the Confederation. Thus did Christianity and Liberty 
triumph over wickedness and crime. 

The Northern States soon began to legislate in favour of eman- 
cipation. Under the impulses of a quickened sense of religious obli- 
gation, and of political consistency, slavery was undermined at the 
North. Much feeling also existed against the institution at the 
South, especially in Virginia, where the introduction of an Eman- 
cipation Act into the legislature was seriously contemplated, after 
the slave-trade was prohibited. It was never understood that In- 
fidelity, as such, had any agency in these philanthropic measures 
throughout the country. Where religion failed to be prominent, 
patriotism supplied the motives of benevolent action. All the public 
documents of the day testify to the truth of this view of the subject. 

The philanthropists of England, moved by equally pure and dis- 
interested motives, aimed at the abolition of the slave-trade, simul- 
taneously with their brethren in America. Granville Sharp, Wil- 
berforce, Newton, Thornton, Scott, Macaulay, and their noble 
coadjutors, were among the foremost of the religious men of their 
age. Seldom, indeed, has Christianity claimed a higher triumph 
in the history of civilization, than when acts were passed for the 
abolition of the African slave-trade, and public measures were 



The historical Argument for Slavery, 61 



inaugurated for the abolition of slavery in America, and elsewhere. 
The religious world will be surprised to learn from Dr. Armstrong 
that Infidelity was the chief agent, whose culminating point was 
West Indian emancipation, under the auspices of England ! Call 
West Indian emancipation a blunder, if you will — a political mis- 
take, a social wrong, a moral imbecility — -but hesitate, before the 
earnest philanthropy of Christian England, in behalf of injured 
Africa and the rights of mankind, is stigmatized with the taint of 
infidel inception and success.* 

Your whole theory on this subject is utterly untenable. You 
might as well attempt to prove that the infidel philosophy on the 
subject of civil government had its culminating triumph in the for- 
mation of the American Constitution, as that the revived interest, 
in America and England, in the abolition of slavery, is indebted to 
the same low source for life and power. Washington, the repre- 
sentative man of his age, was a true representative of the Chris- 
tianity and patriotism of his country, when in his last will and 
testament, he placed on record his views of the rights of mankind, 
and gave freedom to all his slaves. 

8. Another historical error in your letter, is the declaration that 
good men, like Dr. Scott, have insidiously betrayed scriptural truth 
by erroneous expositions, and thus prepared the way for the most 
violent abolitionism. 

I think, in the first place, that you do injustice to Dr. Scott by 
an erroneous " exposition" of his views. That able and judicious 
commentator does not say, or mean, that the Christian master 
should "greatly alleviate or nearly annihilate," any evil which 
concerns his behaviour " to his servants.'' This is Dr. Armstrong's 
own " gloss." Dr. Scott says, that " Christian masters were in- 
structed to behave towards their slaves in such a manner as would 
greatly alleviate, or nearly annihilate the evils of slavery.'' The 
commentator well knew that, however exemplary might be the con- 
duct of " Christian masters" towards their own slaves, on their 
own plantations, some of the "evils of slavery," as a system, would 
still remain in existence. 

If Dr. Scott, in his other remarks, intended to express the 
opinion that the Apostles considered slavery to be in itself sinful, 
but were restrained by prudential considerations from enjoining 
emancipation, he was certainly wrong. It is probable that he 
merely intended to vindicate, on general principles, the true scrip- 
tural plan. However that may be, he was correct, when he added * 
that " the principles of both the law and the Gospel, when carried 
to their consequences, will infallibly abolish slavery." Was he not 
authorized, in expounding Scripture, to give what he conceived to 
be the full meaning of the passage ? Dr. Hodge, in like manner, 
says in his commentary on Ephesians, 6:5," The scriptural doc- 

* For one, I have not yet lost all confidence in the wisdom of this measure. 



62 



Di\ Van Rensselaer s Third Reply, 



trine is opposed to the opinion that slavery is in itself a desirable 
institution, and as such to be cherished and perpetuated." 

Mr. Barnes's remarks, which you quote, I agree with you in re- 
pudiating. But he is as far from being an infidel as Dr. Scott. 
If Mr. Barnes goes a " bowshot beyond Dr. Scott," I think that, 
in regard to the connivance of either with Infidelity, you draw a 
bow " at a venture." 

Dr. Scott's commentaries were published in 1796. They have 
certainly had little influence in imposing Anti-slavery opinions upon 
the Presbyterian Church. As far back as 1787, our highest judi- 
catory uttered stronger declarations than are to be found in those 
commentaries. The Synod declared that it " highly approved of 
the general principles in favour of universal liberty that prevail in. 
America, and the interest which many of the States have taken in 
'promoting the abolition of slavery.'' 

Commentators, from the days of Dr. Scott, onward, naturally 
noticed the subject of slavery in its relation to Scripture, more 
than their predecessors. So far as their commentaries are erro- 
neous, they are to be condemned. Each is to be judged by him- 
self. I do not believe in the philosophical or infidel succession you 
have attempted to establish. 

9. A brief sketch of ultra Pro-slavery opinions may be fairly 
given as an offset to the Anti-slavery history of your Letter. 

Previous to the formation of the American Constitution, public 
opinion, in this country, had been gathering strength, adversely to 
the slave-trade and slavery. The first legislature of the State of 
Virginia prohibited the importation of Africans ; and some of her 
most distinguished public men were unfavourable, not only to the 
increase, but even to the continuance of slavery within her borders. 
The Congress of the old Confederation, with the unanimous consent 
of all the Southern as well as Northern States, provided, in 1787, 
that slavery should be forever excluded from the Northwest Terri- 
tory, which territory then constituted the whole of the public domain. 
In the same year, the framers of the Constitution of the United 
States enacted that the African slave-trade should cease in 1808, 
so far as the " existing States" were concerned ; reserving to Con- 
gress the right to prohibit it before that time in new States or 
Territories — a right which Congress exercised in 1804, by prohibit- 
ing the importation of Africans into the new Territory of Orleans. 

Daniel Webster, in the Senate of the United States, affirmed 
that two things " are quite clear as historical truths. One is, that 
there was an expectation that, on the ceasing of the importation of 
slaves from Africa, slavery would begin to run out here. That 
was hoped and expected. Another is, that as far as there was 
any power in Congress to prevent the spread of slavery in the 
United States, that power was executed in the most absolute 

manner, and to the fullest extent But opinion has changed 

— greatly changed — changed North and changed South. Slavery 



The Historical Argument for Slavery, 



63 



is not regarded, at the South now, as it was then."* Without 
carrying this sketch into the details of modern party politics, which 
would be foreign to my purpose, it is sufficient to note that this 
change of sentiment, at the South, has grown more and more 
marked, down to the present time. Even the project of reviving 
the African slave-trade has been recently entertained in the legis- 
latures of several States. Slavery is now publicly advocated as a 
desirable, and permanent institution, having a complete justification 
in the word of God. Its advocacy is, by others, placed on the 
infidel ground of the original diversity of races. In fact, is not 
Infidelity as busily engaged in vindicating, and propping tip, ultra 
pro-slavery opinions at the South, as it has ever been in agitating 
its untruths, at the North ?t There is little religion in either ex- 
treme. It is to be hoped that the tendency on both sides of the 
question to a change from bad to worse, will be arrested in the 
good providence of God. 

10. Your historical sketch errs in reducing all oppositioyi to 
slavery into the same category. 

. A history of Anti-slavery opinions requires careful discrimination, 
in order to do justice to all parties. The "conservatives" differ 
fundamentally from the ultra faction, which denounces slavehold- 
ing as necessarily sinful, and which accepts no solution but imme- 
diate and universal emancipation. Nor do they, or can they, sym- 
pathize with the equally fanatical opinions on the other side. We 
profess to maintain the firm, scriptural ground, occupied by our 
Church from the beginning. Presbyterians at the North have 
been enabled, under God, to uphold the testimonies of the General 
Assembly in their incorrupt integrity. Will not our brethren at 
the South appreciate our position, and the service we have rendered 
to morals and religion? Your historical sketch confounds all 
varieties of opinion in opposition to the permanence of slavery, 
and reduces them to one common principle of evil. Omission, 
under such circumstances, is commission. It inflicts an injury 
upon your truest friends ; and more, it disparages the cause of 
truth and righteousness. Far be it from me to impute to you any 
intention of this kind. On the contrary, I am sure that yoji will 
gladly rectify the inadvertence. * * 

I rejoice in the belief that the Presbyterian £)hurch is sttb^tan-f 
tially united on the fundamental principles^ involved in this ques- 
tion. If any^danger should hereafter threaten our unity,- it will 
arigft from the extreme advocates of slavery. So far as I haVe * 
any personal knowledge of my brethren* in the Southern section of 

* Mr. Webster emphatlcatlly stated, in the same speec^,^hat, at the formaiiorj of 
thg Constitution, " there was, if not an entire unanimity of sentiment, a general c|fti- 
currence of sentiment running tlirough the. ichole coinmunit^, and especially entertain#d 
J)y the eminent men of all parts of the country,'^ on this subject. , 
« It is well kno\vn, that the infidel publication of (jfiddon and Agassiz, pne of 
•whose puincipal aims is to prove that the negro is not a descendant of Acfem, has • 
had an extensive circulation in the Southern States. • 



64 



Br, Van Rensselaer s Third Reply, 



the Church, or have observed their proceedings in the General 
Assembly, I have yet to learn that they are disposed to depart 
from our ancient Presbyterian testimonies. Few persons, on either 
side,^eem inclined to adopt extreme opinions. Varii)us statements 
in your Letters have excited, perhaps unreasonably, the apprehen- 
sion of a tendency in them to create and cherish divisions. One 
of the impressions, derived from the perusal of your third Letter, 
is that slavery is fortified by the Bible and the Church, and that 
the institution would be safe enough in perpetuity, if ''worldly 
causes" would keep in the right direction, and Infidelity cease its 
assaults. • Your historical account is, at least, so apologetical, that 
it may conciliate, and even stimulate, the ultra defenders of slavery. 

You rightly suggest that error has an insidious beginning. It is 
on this principle, doubtless, that ultra men at the North, and at 
the South, have succeeded in accomplishing much injury. The 
''classic story" of the fall of Troy, by means of the wooden horse 
filled with Grecian enemies, affords an instructive lesson. The 
enemies without the city would have built that structure in vain, if 
leaders within the city had not brought it through the walls. It is 
through the breaches, made by. Christian chieftains, that Infidelity 
is drawn into our citadel. Extreme views, on eit)ier side, combine 
to overthrow the true doctrine of the Ghurch. 

It may be afiirmed, without boasting, and in humble gratitude to 
God, that the Presbyterian - Church occupies a commanding posi- 
tion, at the present time, among the hosts of God's elect. Our 
declared principles on slavery, .em&^ncipation, and Christian fellow- 
ship will endure the scrutkiy,*and at last command the admiration 
of the world. Unterrified by Northern fanaticism, and unseduced 
^by Southern, Presbyterians behold their banner floating peacefully 
over their ancient ramparts. With continued unity in our coun- 
cils, the cause of philanthropy and religion will, under God, be 
safe in our charge, and be handed down with increasing victories, 
from generation to generation. 

I am yours fraternally, 
• C. Van Rensselaer. 



6T 



DR. ARMSTRONG'S FIRST REJOINDER. 

ON THE SCKIPTURE DOCTRINE OF SLAVERY. 

To THE Rev. C. "Van Rensselaer, D.D. : 

In its first settlement by the white man, Kentucky was so often 
the scene of savage warfare as to have received the name of " the 
dark and bloody ground." The hardy pioneer as he scaled its 
mountains, wound along by the side of its rivers, or penetrated its 
forests, proceeded with wary step and slow, rifle in hand, and ready 
for instant conflict. Many a time has the motion caused by the 
winds of heaven, been thought to mafk the presence of some lurk- 
ing foe; and many a time has the rifle-shot dissipated the traveller's 
fears, though it took no life. None but the fool would consider it 
an impeachment of the traveller's courage that he moved with cau- 
tion, nor of his wisdom, that he sometimes shot at the wind. 

The "slavery discussion" well deserves the title of "the dark 
and bloody ground" of modern polemics ; the tomahawk and scalp- 
ing-knife are fit symbols of the weapons often used, whilst the 
" shriek for freedom," not unlike the Indian war-whoop, has lent 
its maddening influence to the fight. 

Aware of this, I am not surprised to find you, in your " Conser- 
vative Replies," charging upon me opinions which I do not enter- 
tain, and which — I write it after carefully reading over all I have 
published on the subject — I have not expressed. And you will not 
understand me as intending to impeach either your intelligence or 
your candour, when I add, you seem to me to have misapprehended 
the scope of my argument, and the position I have assumed, both 
in my " Christian Doctrine of Slavery" and in my " Letters," sub- 
sequently addressed to yourself. And lest you should think that, 
like the lawyers of old, " I am lading you with a burden, grievous 
to be borne, whilst I touch it not with one of my fingers," I will 
couple this charge with a confession, — I certainly misapprehended 
the position you intended to assume in the brief " book notice," 
which has given rise to this discussion — but of this, more hereafter. 

To guard against misapprehension, in what I now write, I shall 
make use of division into sections, and all such other appliances as 
are calculated to secure perspicuity. 

§ 1. True sense of the expression^ " the Christian doctrine of 
slavery. 

In a thorough examination of domestic slavery, some of the 
questions which claim consideration are religious questions, other's 
are political. The whole doctrine of slavery is, in part, a Christian 
doctrine, which falls properly within the province of the Church, to 
be determined, taught, and enforced with her spiritual sanctions ; 
and in part, a political doctrine, which it is the business of the 
statesman to expound, and the civil ruler to apply, in the exercise 



68 



of the authority which by God's ordinance belongs to them. In 
this, we fully agree. 

In attempting to draw the distinction between the Christian and 
the Political, let us substitute for the case of Domestic Slavery that 
of Civil Despotism. We both agree that the Bible places the two 
in the same category. There will, therefore, be no danger of being 
betrayed into error by the substitution, and we will thus be enabled 
to approach the subject in a way in which we will be less likely to 
be influenced by prejudice than if we approached it directly. 

I would make a statement in brief of the whole doctrine of Civil 
Despotism in some such terms as these, — and if you substitute 
Domestic Slavery for Civil Despotism in each several proposition, 
as you pass along, you will have my faith with respect to it also. 

1. Civil Despotism belongs " in morals to the adiapJiora^ to 
things indifferent. It is expedient or inexpedient, right or wrong, 
according to circumstances." 

2. As compared with other forms of civil government, " in this 
present evil world," it belongs to a lower state of Christian civili- 
zation in the subject, than limited monarchy or republicanism. 

3. The question of its continuance in any particular instance, 
should be determined by the consideration of "well-being" "or the 
general good." 

4. So long as Civil Despotism lawfully continues among any 
people, the Christian subject is bound to obedience ; and, the 
Church is bound to respect the institution, and to instruct the 
people in their duties, as those duties are set forth in the word of 
God. 

To this statement, in its several particulars, I do not think that 
you will object. 

How much of this doctrine is Christian, as contradistinguished 
from Political, and therefore falls properly within the province of 
the Church to teach and enforce ? 

I answer. Just so much of it as is taught in the word of God, 
and no more. In this, as in all similar cases, a part of the truth 
is taught us in the word of God ; another part, we learn in the use 
of that reason which God has given for our guidance in such matters. 
The latter will never be inconsistent with the former ; though it 
will be in addition to it, and therefore, distinct from it. 

The question then — How much of this doctrine is properly Chris- 
tian ? resolves itself into this other — How much of this doctrine 
is distinctly taught us in the word of God ? To this, I reply — 

1. The word of God teaches that so long as a despotic govern- 
ilient lawfully continues among any people, rulers and subjects alike 
are bound to discharge the duties belonging to their several sta- 
tions, and the Church is bound to respect the institution, and by 
her teaching and discipline to enforce the discharge of duty, as 
that duty is set forth in the word of God. 

2. The word of God teaches that despotism is not a sinful form 



69 



of government, and is not to be treated as an "offence" by the 
Church. 

Does any one object to the terms in -which the second proposi- 
tion is stated ? My reply is — This is just the truth, both as to 
substance and form, presented us in the word of God. " Let every 
soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power 
but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever, 
therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God; and 
they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation." (Rom. 
13 : 1-4.) For an admirable exposition of this passage, see Dr. 
Hodge's Commentary. 

Does any one ask how is this statement to be reconciled with 
that already made, when setting forth what I received as the luhole 
doctrine of civil despotism ? My reply is — I see no discrepancy 
between them. The one statement is more comprehensive than the 
other, and fairly includes it. ' 

When I write, " Civil despotism is expedient or inexpedient, 
right OYtvrong, according to circumstances," — I do not mesm wrong 
in the proper sense of sinful. Should any Christian man, at the 
present day, avow the belief that a despotic government would 
better secure "the general good" of our people, than the form of 
government under which we live — and I have heard such an opi- 
nion avowed more than once — I should controvert his opinion as 
wrong, but I should not denounce him as a sinner for holding it. 
Should he, in any lawful manner, lawful under God's law, attempt 
to replace our republican by a despotic government, I should resist 
him, in my character of a citizen; but I have no authority to treat 
him as an offender, in my character of a ruler in the Church. But 
should any Christian man "resist," in the sense in which Paul 
uses that word, in Rom. 13 : 2, our republican government, and 
more especially if he taught others so to do, I should at once 
charge him with sin, and treat him as an "offender." 

When I write, "Civil despotism is not a sinful form of govern- 
ment," the idea that where such a government exists, it must of right 
always continue, is no more implied, than the doctrine of "passive 
obedience" is implied in Paul's words, written when Nero was 
emperor, "Whosoever, therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth the 
ordinance of God ; and they that resist shall receive to themselves 
damnation." Or the doctrine of "the divine right of kings," is 
implied in Peter's words, " Submit yourselves to every ordinance 
of man for the Lord's sake ; whether it be to the king as supreme, 
or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the pun- 
ishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do well." 

In interpreting the language of Scripture, or the language used 
in setting forth the Scripture or Christian doctrine, on such a sub- 
ject as this, we must bear in mind the admitted truth, that the 
Scriptures were given to teach us religion and not politics; and 
all that needs to be shown, respecting any political right or doc- 
trine, commended to us as true by reason, is, that it is not in con- 



70 



flict with the word of God. The "right of revolution," i. g., the 
right of a people to change their form of government, is a political 
right — the doctrine of revolution is a political doctrine; and, there- 
fore, we have no reason to expect that they will be taught us in 
the word of God. I receive them as true, upon the authority of 
reason. Receiving them upon this authority, it is enough for me, 
it is all that I have a right to expect, that it shall be clear ; and I 
think that it is clear that the Scriptures teach nothing at variance 
with them. 

Does any one ask, why insist upon the statement " Civil despot- 
ism is not a sinful form of government, and is not to be treated as 
an * offence' by the Church," when I admit the truth of the other, 
" Civil Despotism belongs, in morals, to the adiaphora, to things 
indifferent ; it is expedient or inexpedient, right or wrong, accord- 
ing to circumstances?" I answer — Because I am professing to 
give a statement of the Christian or Scriptural doctrine, i. e., what 
the word of God teaches, respecting civil despotism. The first 
statement does this ; the latter does more than this. The first 
statement sets forth truth which must bind the conscience, and 
exactly defines the limits of the Church's power. The latter, though 
I receive it as all true, does neither the one nor the other. 

As ah-eady intimated, if you will substitute domestic slavery for 
civil despotism throughout this section, you will have a statement 
of what I believe respecting that subject. In my book, " The 
Christian Doctrine of Slavery," I have written, " Throughout, the 
author has kept these two ends in view. 1. A faithful exhibition 
of the doctrine respecting slavery taught by Christ and his Apos- 
tles. Nothing which they taught has been intentionally omitted. 
No topic which they omitted — however essential to a full discus- 
sion of slavery as a civil and political question, it may be — has 
been introduced ;" and when stating the question to be discussed, 
I stated it in these terms, " What do Christ and his Apostles — 
commissioned by him to complete the sacred canon, and perfect the 
organization of the Church — teach respecting slavery, and the re- 
lation in which the Church stands to that institution?" (See p. 8.) 
The reply given to this question — " They teach that slaveholding 
is not a sin in the sight of God, and is not to be accounted an 
' offence' by his church" (see p. 8), &c., is, I yet think, the correct 
reply ; and after examining your principal objections to it, I will 
briefly state some additional reasons for thinking so. 

§ 2. Statement of the difference between us. 

In your first letter you write, " I now proceed to the subject of 
your first letter, viz. : the proper statement of the seri]jtural doc- 
trine of slavery." 

" Your statement is, ' slaveholding is not a sin in the sight of 
God, and is not to be accounted an offence by his church.' " 

" My statement is, ' slaveholding is not necessarily and in all 
circumstances sinful.' " 

Simply calling your attention to the fact that it is " the scrip- 



71 



TURAL DOCTRINE," i. e., what the word of God teaches respecting 
slavery, for which we are seeking a brief expression, in general 
terms — I accept your statement of the difference between us. 

§ 3. The Greneral Assembly's paper of 1845. 

The correctness of your " form of statement" you think con- 
firmed by the coincidence with the testimonies of the Presbyterian 
Church — while of mine, you write, " whatever added explanations 
may cause it to approximate to the language of the General As- 
sembly, the naked words are as dissimilar, as a leafless tree is from 
one of living green." 

In proof of this you make the following five quotations from the 
paper adopted by the General Assembly in 1845, viz. : 

1. " The question, which is now unhappily agitating and dividing 
other branches of the Church, is, whether the holding of slaves is 
under all circumstances, a heinous sin, calling for the discipline of 
the Church." 

2. " The question which this Assembly is called upon to decide 
is this: Do the Scriptures teach that the holding of slaves, without 
regard to circumstances, is a sin ?" 

3. " The Apostles did not denounce the relation itself as sin- 
ful." 

4. ^' The Assembly cannot denounce the holding of slaves as 
necessarily a heinous and scandalous sin." 

5. " The existence of domestic slavery, under the circumstances 
in which it is found in the southern portion of the country, is no 
bar to Christian communion." 

Such are your quotations. Did it escape your notice, my good 
brother, that the first two of your quotations are not deliverances 
of the Assembly, but simply statements of what Abolitionists were 
contending for in other churches, and what certain Abolition memo- 
rialists had demanded of them ; and that the second two, are the 
answers of the Assembly to this demand — where the answer natu- 
rally and properly takes its form from that of the demand to which 
it is an answer. This, which appears upon the face of the quota- 
tions, is placed beyond all doubt when we turn to the paper 
adopted by the Assembly, and examine them in the connection in 
which they occur. In so far, then, as these quotations are relied 
upon as authority for " language" or " a form of expression," it 
is the authority of the Abolitionists, and not of the Assembly, 
which they afford ; an authority of which we may say, as has been 
said of poor land, the more a man has of it, the worse he is 
off." 

Your last quotation, is a proper deliverance of the Assembly. 
It is a part of the first of the two resolutions with which the paper 
adopted by the Assembly closes — resolutions, in which that venerable 
body give a summary of the principles before stated in a practical 
form, i. e., as in their judgment, those principles apply to slave- 
holding " in the southern portion of our country." But the autho- 
rity of that quotation is, I think, clearly on my side and not on 



72 



yours ;— certain I am, if you had written, slaveholding " in the 
circumstances in which it exists in the southern portion of our 
country" is not sinful, I should never have thought of objecting to 
your statement. 

The deliverance, in general terms, of the Assembly of 1845, is 
in these words, The Assembly intend simply to say, that since 
Christ and his inspired Apostles did not make the holding of slaves 
a bar to communion, we, as a court of Christ, have no authority to 
do so ; since they did not attempt to remove it from the Church by 
legislation, we have no authority to legislate on the subject," &c. 
This deliverance is a scriptural one, and covers all the ground that 
my " statement," fairly interpreted, does. 

§ 4. Dr. Rodger Essay, 

You make certain quotations from Dr. Hodge's celebrated article 
on Slavery — one of the ablest articles which has appeared on this 
subject, and an article which claims particular attention from the 
connection in which it stands, as a matter of history, with the 
position of the Presbyterian Church, 0. S., in which he adopts a 
" form of expression" similar to yours, viz. : 

(1.) " An equally obvious deduction is, that slaveholding is not 
necessarily sinful." 

(2.) Both political despotism and domestic slavery belong in 
morals to the adiaphora^ to things indifferent. They may be expe- 
dient or inexpedient, right or wrong, according to circumstances. 
Belonging to the same class, they should be treated in the same 
way. Neither is to be denounced as necessarily sinful, and to be 
abolished immediately under all circumstances." 

(3.) " Slavery is a question of circumstances, and not a malum 
in se." " Simply to prove that slaveholding interferes with natural 
rights, is not enough to justify the conclusion that it is necessarily 
and universally sinful." 

(4.) " These forms of society are not necessarily, or in them- 
selves, just or unjust; but become one or the other according to 
circumstances." 

(5.) " Monarchy, aristocracy, democracy, domestic slavery, are 
right or wrong, as they are for the time being conducive to this 
great end, or the reverse." 

(6.) " We have ever maintained that slaveholding is not in itself 
sinful ; that the right to personal liberty is conditioned by the 
ability to exercise beneficially that right." 

(7.) " Nothing can be more distinct than the right to hold slaves 
in certain circumstances, and the right to render slavery perpetual." 

In these quotations, I cheerfully grant, that the language of Dr. 
Hodge is similar to yours. But then, I must ask you to notice, 

1. In several of them he is, obviously, meeting the arguments 
and assailing the positions of the Abolitionists, and his statements 
naturally and properly take their form from those of his opponents, 
and, 

2. In others, he is stating the doctrine of slavery, as it presents 



73 



itself when deduced from general principles, ^. e., he is stating the 
wliole doctrine of slavery, without attempting to distinguish between 
the scriptural and the political in that doctrine. Fairly inter- 
preted, there is nothing in any of these statements quoted by you, 
from which I have any disposition to dissent. 

But listen to Dr. Hodge, as he states the doctrine of slavery 
directly deducible from the word of God, — and I quote from the 
same essay. 

(1.) " When Southern Christians are told that they are guilty of 
a heinous crime, worse than piracy, robbery, or murder, because 
they hold slaves, when they know that Christ and his Apostles 
never denounced slaveholding as a criine, never called upon men 
to renounce it as a condition of admission into the Church, they 
are shocked and offended, without being convinced." (Hodge's 
Essays and Reviews, p. 484.) 

(2.) " Our argument from this acknowledged fact is, that if God 
allowed slavery to exist, if he directed how slaves might be law- 
fully acquired, and how they were to be treated, it is vain to con- 
tend that slaveholding is a sin, and yet profess reverence for the 
Scriptures.'' (p. 492.) 

(8.) " As it appears to us too clear to admit of either denial or 
doubt, that the Scriptures do sanction slaveholding ; that under the 
old dispensation it was expressly permitted by divine command, 
and under the New Testament is nowhere forbidden or denounced; 
but, on the contrary, acknowledged to he consistent with the Chris- 
tian character and prof ession {that is, consistent with justice, mercy ^ 
holiness, love to God and love to man), to declare it to he a heinous 
crime, is a direct impeachment of tlie luord of Grod." (p. 503.) 

If the language of Dr. Hodge, in the quotations which you have 
made, gives countenance to your "form of expression," does not 
his language in those which I have made, give equally distinct 
countenance to mine ? And notice, here — 

(1.) My quotations are exactly "in point," since they cover the 
precise question respecting an expression for the Scriptural doc- 
trine of slavery — whilst yours are not " in point." 

(2.) Dr. Hodge uses this language without intending to teach, or 
being thought to teach " the permanence of slavery, as an ordi- 
nance of God, on a level with marriage or civil government." (Dr. 
Van Rensselaer's Sec. Let.) 

(3.) The Essay of Dr. Hodge, from which these quotations are 
made, together with Dr. Baxter's " Essay on the Abolition of 
Slavery," published the same year (1836), stand in intimate historic 
connection with the position respecting slavery assumed by the 
Presbyterian Church, Old School, in its separation from the New. 
Beyond all question, they had more to do in determining that posi- 
tion than any other papers or speeches whatsoever. Why then 
should my "language" sound "like an old tune with unpleasant 
alterations'' (Dr. Van Rensselaer's First Letter), when it is precisely 
similar to that used by them, at that time ? 



74 



§ 5. weapon to do tattle with.'' 

You object to my statement because, you think, "as, a weapon 
to do battle with, it invites assault without the power to repel. It 
lacks the Scriptural characteristic of fighting a good fight. It 
carries with it no available and victorious force." 

If this opinion of yours be well-founded, it expresses a very 
serious objection to my "form of expression." The great conflict 
of the Church of God, in our country and our day, is her conflict 
with Abolitionism ; and it becomes her to arm herself with weapons 
which will not disappoint her in the hour of trial. 

As an offset to your opinion, let me state Sifact, in part known 
to the public already, through another channel ; and let me say 
with Paul, if I seem to have " become a fool in glorying, ye have 
compelled me." 

In the Presbyterian Herald, May 7th, 1857, the editor, after 
stating, at some length, his reasons for such a course, writes — 
"We wrote a letter, last winter, to Rev. Mr. Dexter, the leading 
editor of one of their papers at Boston, The Congregationalist, 
proposing to him to choose one of his brethren, in whose candour, 
ability, learning, and Christian temper, he had confidence, and we 
would select an Old School Presbyterian minister of the same cha- 
racter, and let the two discuss, in our respective columns, the ques- 
tion whether the New Testament teaches that slaveholding should 
be made a term of communion in Christ's Church, or, in other 
words, whether it teaches that it is inconsistent with Christian cha- 
racter to hold slaves ; the articles of each writer to be published 
simultaneously in the two papers, and afterwards in book form, 
under the joint supervision of the editors of the two papers. To 
this letter we received a very kind and courteous reply, accepting 
our proposition conditionally. We named the Rev. George D. 
Armstrong, D.D., pastor of the Presbyterian Church, in Norfolk, 
Virginia, as our selection ; and requested the Rev. Mr. Dexter to 
select some New England man of equal standing, and put the cor- 
respondence as to the precise question to be discussed, into their 
hands. Without going into further details, we will only add, that 
the negotiations for a discussion have failed, for the present at 
least; and Dr. Armstrong has prepared a small work for the press, 
entitled 'The Christian Doctrine of Slavery.' After the issue of 
the work, the proposed discussion of its positions may yet take 
place in the columns of the Herald and Congregationalist." Thus 
much writes Dr. Hill. 

I will now add, that "the negotiations for a discussion failed," 
because we could not agree upon such a statement of the question 
to be discussed, as seemed fair to both parties. When this result 
became evident, I made the proposition to publish my argument — 
as I subsequently did ; and then, to make this published argument 
the starting-point for a discussion, in the form of review and re- 
joinder ; the terms, in other respects, remaining as before. To 
the fairness of this proposition, no objection was made. As soon 



n 

as printed, two copies were sent to the other party. And, although 
a year has now elapsed, neither Dr. Hill nor I have heard anything 
of the proposed discussion from that day to this. 

Such is m J fact, which, pardon me for saying it, does not agree 
very well with your opinion. And I am sure you will not say, as 
was once said by a good man, who shall be nameless, in circum- 
stances somewhat similar, "so much the worse for the fact then." 

§ 7. Objections to Dr. Van Rensselaer s statement. 

In my "first letter" I stated two objections to your "form of 
statement," both of which you seem to have misapprehended. I 
must, therefore, restate them, and add some further explanation. 

" 1. It is an unusual form of stating ethical propositions such 
as this, and though it is broad enough to acquit the slaveholding 
member of the Church, it gives to his acquittal a sort of ' whip, 
and clear him air,' — pardon my use of this homely expression ; I 
can find no other which will so well convey the exact idea I wish to 
give utterance to — which seems to me in contrast with all the New 
Testament deliverances on the subject." 

A "whip, and clear him" verdict, is a verdict given by a jury, 
when they believe a prisoner guilty, though his guilt cannot be 
proven ; and being compelled by the evidence to acquit him, they 
yet award him a flogging, on the score of their belief of his bad 
character in general ; and does not mean, as you have interpreted 
the phrase, "strike first, and then acquit." 

God's people, whose lot in his providence has been cast in the 
midst of slavery, have not only weighty responsibilities, and re- 
sponsibilities to be met in the midst of many difficulties, arising 
out of their connection with that institution, but they have had 
much to bear from their Christian brethren in other parts of our 
country, in the twenty-five years last past. Misapprehension 
and personal abuse are the least of their wrongs. To be told, as 
they have been, even at the table of our common Lord, "Stand 
aside, for I am holier than thou," they might well have borne, 
comforted by the assurance that though man might condemn them, 
"the Lord of glory" would not. But the worst of their wrong is, 
they have been constantly hindered in doing " God's work in God's 
way," with respect to the slave race among them, hymen "desiring 
to be teachers of the law, but understanding neither what they say, 
nor whereof they affirm." 

Do not think that I mean to class you among this number. I 
know well that your views and your uniform course of conduct 
have been very difi"erent from theirs. But I object to your " form 
of expressing" the Scripture doctrine of slavery, because your 
language does seem to countenance such views as theirs ; and, in 
this particular, is in contrast with the language uniformly used by 
inspired Apostles when treating of this subject. Let Dr. Barnes 
specify the circumstances,'' and I doubt whether even he would 
object to your statement — " Slaveholding is not necessarily and in 



76 



all circumstances sinful." At any rate, he distinctly admits that 
Abraham's slaveholding was no sin. 

2. But my principal objection to your " form of expression," as 
a statement of the Scripture doctrine of slavery^ is that which, in 
my first letter, I set forth in the words: " When taken apart 
from all explanations^ it does not fairly cover all the ground 
which the doctrine of Christ and his inspired Apostles covers.'' 

The argument on this point, embodied in the Assembly's paper 
of '45, and that of Dr. Hodge's Essay, is substantially the same 
with that which I have presented, more in detail, in my Christian 
Doctrine of Slavery." Let us look at this argument, and see 
just what ground it does fairly cover. 

(1.) The Assembly of '45 say — " Since Christ and his inspired 
Apostles did not make the holding of slaves a bar to communion, 
we, as a court of Christ, have no authority to do so." 

Give this argument, now, the form of a syllogism, that we may 
examine it the more carefully : 

A. Whatever Christ and his inspired Apostles refused to make a 
bar to communion, a court of Christ has no authority to make 
such. 

But, Christ and his inspired Apostles did refuse to make slave- 
holding a bar to communion. 

Therefore, a court of Christ has no authority to make slave- 
holding a bar to communion. 

(2.) The Assembly add — " Since they," i. e., Christ and his 
inspired Apostles, " did not attempt to remove it from the Church 
by legislation, we have no authority to legislate on the subject." 

Give this, also, the form of a syllogism : 

B. Whatever Christ and his inspired Apostles did not attempt to 
legislate out of the Church, the Church has no authority to remove 
by legislation. 

But, Christ and his inspired Apostles did not attempt to legislate 
slaveholding out of the Church. 

Therefore, the Church has no authority to remove slaveholding 
from her body by legislation. 

Dr. Hodge writes, as quoted in Sec. 4, " As it appears to us too 
clear to admit of either denial or doubt, that the Scriptures do 
sanction slaveholding ; that under the old dispensation it was ex- 
pressly permitted by divine command^ and under the New Testa- 
ment is nowhere forbidden or denounced., but^ on the contrary, 
acknowledged to be consistent tuith the Christian character and 
profession [that is, consistent with justice, mercy, holiness, love to 
God, and love to man), to declare it to be a heinous crime, is a 
direct impeachment of the word of Grod,'' 

Give this the form of a syllogism : 

c. To declare that to be a sin which, under the old dispensation, 
was expressly permitted by divine command, and, under the New 
Testament, is nowhere forbidden or denounced, but, on the con- 



77 



trary, acknowledged to be consistent with the Christian character 
and profession (that is, consistent with justice, mercy, holiness, 
love to God, and love to man), is a direct impeachment of the 
word of God. 

But slaveholding, under the old dispensation, was expressly per- 
mitted, and under the New Testament, was acknowledged to be 
consistent with the Christian character and profession, &c. 

Therefore, to declare slaveholding a sin is a direct impeachment 
of the word of God. 

Now, notice — (1.) The major premise in each of these three syl- 
logisms, is a statement of a principle, in its nature unchangeable ; 
in fact, just the " YII" of the " preliminary principles," in the 
" Form of Government of the Presbyterian Church,-" — " That all 
Church power, whether exercised by the body in general, or 
in the way of representation by delegated authority, is only 
ministerial and declarative ; that is to say, that the Holy Scrip- 
tures are the only rule of faith and manners ; that no Church judi- 
catory ought to pretend to make laws to bind the conscience in 
virtue of their own authority ; and that all their decisions should 
be founded upon the revealed will of God." 

(2.) The minor premise in each is a statement of fact, which, if 
it be a true statement, must always continue such. 

Whatever then the argument expressed in these syllogisms 
proves, it proves not for this or that age, but for all time^ until 
Christ shall come the second time and bring to a close the present 
dispensation. 

If the argument in syllogism A, proved that the Church had "no 
authority to make slaveholding a bar to communion" in 1845, it 
proves that the Church never will have such authority. 

If the argument in syllogism B, proves that the Church had ''no 
authority to legislate slaveholding out of itself" in 1845, it proves 
that she never will have such authority. 

If the argument in syllogism C, proved that " to declare slave- 
holding a sin was a direct impeachment of the word of God" in 
1837, it must prove the same now, and will prove the same until 
we get a new word of God as our rule of faith. 

As already remarked, the argument presented in these syllogisms 
is the same in substance, which I have presented more in detail, in 
my " Christian Doctrine of Slavery." 

Is this argument a sound one? Are the premises fairly stated? 

If you answer yes — Then, I say, nothing can be more clear than 
that your statement, "slaveholding is not necessarily and in all 
circumstances sinful," " does not fairly cover all the ground which 
the doctrine of Christ and his inspired Apostles covers." There 
are no ^'circumstances" introduced into the premises, and hence, 
according to a fundamental principle of logic, none can be intro- 
duced into the conclusion. It is true, that taken in connection 
with your " explanation," that you do not wish to see our Church 



78 



depart from " the scriptural position" which she has assumed, it 
does practically, for the present, cover that ground, — but no state- 
ment short of what you term my "too broad conclusion" will fully 
and fairly cover that ground. 

If you answer No — Then, I say, point out distinctly, where the 
fallacy in the argument is. If " circumstances" ought to have 
been introduced into the premises — state, distinctly (1) in which 
premise, and (2) what the '''•circumstances" are. Meet the argu- 
ment " fairly and squarely," for thus only can you influence the 
opinions of thinking men. To help you in this, is one object I have 
had in view, in giving to the argument the logical form of the 
syllogism. 

For myself, I believe the argument is a sound one; I believe the 
premises are fairly and fully stated ; and, therefore, I find myself 
shut up to the conclusion, that " slaveholding is not a sin in the 
sight of Grod, and is not to be accounted an offence by his Church." 
And I feel myself confirmed in this judgment, by the fact that the 
General Assembly, and Dr. Hodge, when they attempt to state the 
Scripture premises, state them, substantially, as I do. 

Of this I am certain. The prejudices of my early life and edu- 
cation have not helped me forward towards the conclusion I have 
reached. Their influence was all the other way. Of this, also, I 
am certain. My political opinions have not helped me. Their 
influence, too, has been all the other way. And I think I can add, 
my interest has not swayed me. I am not a slaveholder — though 
Dr. McMaster does name me among the "slave-driving hierarchs" 
of the South. I never have been a slaveholder. And if I am 
labouring in the cause of Christ, at the South, to-day, it is not 
because inviting fields of labour in the Free States have not been 
offered me. If I know anything of the history of my opinions on 
this subject, they are opinions which have been formed under the 
influence of a careful and prayerful study of God's word. And 
let me here add, that I believe, where our Northern brethren have 
spent one hour in the careful and prayerful study of what God's 
word teaches on the subject of slavery, we, of the South, have 
spent ten. And this ought to be so, for upon us, in God's provi- 
dence, the immediate responsibility with respect to slavery rests. 

Near the close of your Second Letter, you ask, — " Are there no 
eternal principles of justice, no standard of human rights, by which 
a system of servitude shall submit to be judged, and in whose pre- 
sence it shall be made to plead for justification ?" I answer. Yes, my 
good brother, there are eternal principles of justice, there is a standard 
of human rights ; — and I add, there is a Judge too, who " sitteth 
at the top of judgment," whose very "foolishness is wiser than the 
wisdom of man;" by whom those "eternal principles of justice," 
and this " standard of human rights" have been applied to the very 
case before us. His decision is " of record." And having this 
decision, we will never consent to have the case appealed to any 
lower tribunal. 



79 



§ 8. Wliat my statement does not include. 

Knowing how difficult a matter it is to do an opponent justice 
on this dark and bloody ground" of modern polemics, even when 
our purposes are most fair — and I do not question that yours are 
"such — let me, in concluding this letter, state distinctly, certain 
things which, I think, are neither included nor implied in the state- 
ment of the Christian doctrine of slavery for which I am contend- 
ing- 

1. It does not imply a sanction of the incidental evils, attacJiing 
to slavery in Paul's day, or as it exists noiu. 

The word of God did not teach then, nor does it teach now, that 
the master may sinlessly withhold from his slave "kind treatment," 
or "adequate compensation for service," or perpetuate "his igno- 
rance and debasement." 

As I shall have to speak of this subject more fully in my next 
letter, I content myself, for the present, with remarking, that the 
only slavery which the Bible justifies now, or ever did justify, is a 
slavery which "is a condition of mutual rights and obligations, the 
right of the master being to receive obedience and service, the 
right of the slave to receive that which is just and equal." (Chn. 
Doc. Slav. p. 105.) 

This, if I mistake not, is just what you and Dr. Spring, as quoted 
by you, most improperly call aj^prefiticesJiip." The difference 
between slavery and apprenticeship, is not a difference in the degree 
of rigor with which one is made to serve. The peculiarity of ap- 
prenticeship, as both the use and the etymology of the term determine 
— (see Webster's Dictionary) — is, that the service is rendered with 
an eye to instruction in some art or calling ; and with no sort of 
propriety can the service authorized by Moses' law, either that of 
the Jew or the Gentile, be called an apprenticeship ; since it was 
not a servitude authorized or entered into with any such view as 
this. 

And, whilst speaking of this misuse of terms, let me refer to 
another, viz., "Slavery in itself considered." What is the proper 
meaning of that expression ? I should answer — slavery, distinct 
from the incidental evils which may attach to it in any particular 
age or country; and, thus understood, the formula, " Slaveholding, 
in itself considered, is not sinful," would be perfectly satisfactory 
to me — would cover all the ground which I think the word of God 
covers. But, most unfortunately, modern usage, especially the 
usage of writers in the slavery controversy, has attached a different 
meaning to the phrase, a meaning which you have correctly set 
forth in your First Letter — " Slaveholding, in itself considered, is 
not sinful ; that is to say, it is not a malum in se; or, in other 
words, it is a relation which may he justified hy circumstances.'^ 
Eor this reason, and this alone, I did not use this formula in my 
"Christian Doctrine of Slavery," and cannot accept it now. 

2. It does not imply that "the citizen in the Free States can 



80 



always latvfully enter into this relation" (i. e., the relation of a 
slaveholder), "when he removes into a State where the laws do 
sanction slavery;" if by lawfully^'' you mean without sin! 

The case, as stated by yourself, is a case concerning, not sin as 
attaching to an institution, but sin as attaching to the conduct of 
the individual man ; a case which is fully discussed by Paul, in the 
14th chapter of Romans. If there be "tens of thousands of Chris- 
tians in the Free States, who could not enter voluntarily into this 
relation without involving their conscience in sin," then I say with 
Paul — "To him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it 
is unclean," but "why is my liberty judged of another man's con- 
science?" 

3. It does not imply 'Hhe 'permanence of slavery, as an ordi- 
nance of G-od, on a level ivitli marriage or civil government.''' 

The reasoning which would educe such a conclusion from the 
deliverances of the word of God, on the subject of slavery, or 
from the "form of expression" for the Christian Doctrine of Sla- 
very, for which I am contending, involves the same fallacy, with 
that which educes the doctrines of " passive obedience," and the 
" divine right of kings," from the Scripture deliverances on the 
subject of civil government. 

The duty of obedience to " the powers that be," whether in the 
state or on the plantation, is a Christian duty, and is therefore en- 
joined in the word of God. The " doctrine of revolution," in the 
one case, and the " doctrine of emancipation," in the other, are not 
religious, but political doctrines, and therefore they are not taught 
us in the word of God. Of this, also, I shall have occasion to 
speak more fully in my next letter, and I therefore dismiss it for 
the present. 

4. Nor does my statement imply that a man may, without sin, 
hold slaves where the laws of the State prohibit it. 

The State is the proper authority to determine the question of 
the permission or prohibition of slavery within its own territory. 
And for a citizen to attempt to hold slaves, where the State pro- 
hibits slavery, is for him to " resist" the powers that be, in the 
sense of Rom. 13:2; and of such, Paul says, " They shall receive 
to themselves damnation." 

Such are a few of the points, in which you have charged upon 
me opinions which I do not hold, and, upon my statement, conse- 
quences which I do not admit. And I make this distinct disclaimer, 
that if, in any future communication, you should see fit to renew 
these charges, it may rest upon you to show that their consequences 
are fairly involved in that statement. 

Yours, truly, 

Geo. D. Armstrong. 



DR. ARMSTRONG'S SECOND REJOINDER. 



EMANCIPATION AND THE CHURCH. 

To THE Rev. C. Yan Rensselaer, D.D. : 

If I correctly apprehend the position you assume on the subject 
of ^'Emancipation and the Church," in your second letter, we 
agree in the main, whilst on secondary points only we differ. 

SECTION I. — AGREEMENT AND DIFFERENCE. 

What you assert for the Church is simply the right to utter 
opinions, or give advisory testimonies in favour of Emancipation; 
but not to make deliverances which shall bind the conscience, or 
in any way affect the standing of those who hold and act upon 
opinions different from those which she expresses. It was against 
the right of the Church to make the authoritative deliverances of 
the latter kind, that the argument of my second letter was mainly 
directed : and had I understood your position at first, as I do now, 
I should probably never have written that letter. 

In so far, then, as authoritative deliverances are concerned, we 
agree. 

The point on which we differ, is the right of the Church to utter 
opinions, or give advisory testimony in favour of emancipation. 

You write — " Slavery has both moral and political aspects." 
" Our Cljijarch has always avoided interference with the State, in 
matters that are outside of her own appropriate work. She has 
not claimed authority over the political relations of slavery, nor 
attempted to extend her domain over subjects not plainly within 
her own province. It is only where slavery comes within the line 
of ecclesiastical jurisdiction ; that is to say, in its moral and reli- 
gious aspects, that our Church has maintained her right to deliver 
her testimony in such form, and at such times, as seemed best. 
She has ' rendered unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and 
unto God the things that are God's.' Let no one attempt to de- 
spoil her of this joy." 

Here again, if I understand you, is a second point on which we 
agree, viz. : If the question of emancipation be properly a political 
question, the Church has no "right to deliver her testimony" re- 
specting it, being estopped by God's law, which requires her to 
"render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's." 

We differ as to the category — religious or political — to which 
the question of emancipation belongs. 

6 



82 



SECTION II. — IS THE QUESTION OF EMANCIPATION PROPERLY A 
POLITICAL QUESTION? 

In my fourth letter, as well as in my " Christian Doctrine of 
Slavery," pp. 129, 130, I have endeavoured to draw the distinc- 
tion between the "political" and "scriptural or Christian," in the 
doctrine of slavery ; and if the positions there assumed are sound 
ones, then emancipation falls into the category of political ques- 
tions, unless you can show either (1), That it is a question which 
"immediately concerns the interests of the life to come," and is 
not a question respecting " civil rights and political franchises ;" 
or (2), That the word of God, when fairly interpreted, does contain 
a clear deliverance on the subject. 

First. For proof that the Bible " treats the distinctions which 
slavery creates as matters of very little importance, in so far as 
the interests of the Christian life are concerned," and, conse- 
quently, the question of emancipation as not one which " imme- 
diately concerns the interests of the life to come," I refer you to 
" Christian Doctrine of Slavery," pp. 65-74. 

In proof that the teaching of the Bible here corresponds with 
the experience of the Church, I refer you to the two incontroverti- 
ble facts — (1), That a larger proportion of the labouring classes 
belong to the Christian Church in the Southern States, where the 
labourers are mostly slaves, than in the Northern, where slavery 
does not exist ; and (2), The number of coloured church members, 
in the evangelical churches in our Southern States, is nearly dou- 
ble that of all the evangelical churches gathered from among the 
heathen throughout the world. " In 1855 heathen church member- 
ship is set down at one hundred and eighty thousand. The present 
estimate of coloured church members in the Methodist Church 
South, is one hundred and seventy-five thousand. Eight or ten 
years ago the Baptist coloured membership at the South was re- 
corded as only four thousand less than the Methodist. When to 
these two numbers, you add all the coloured members of other 
unincluded organizations of Methodists and Baptists, also of Epis- 
copalians, Lutherans, and Presbyterians, you readily reach an 
aggregate of coloured church membership near twice as large as 
the strictly heathen orthodox church membership of the world." 
(Stiles's Modern Reform, p. 27T.) 

Second. Does the word of God, when fairly interpreted, contain 
a clear deliverance on this subject ? 

You find such a deliverance in 1 Cor. 7 : 20, 21. ".Let every 
man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art thou 
called being a servant ? care not for it ; but if thou mayest be 
made free, use it rather^'" — and you write, " Use your freedom, 
rather," says Paul, expounding the nature of slavery, and throw- 
ing the light of inspiration upon its anomalous character. When 
did the Apostle ever exhort husbands and wives not to care for 



83 



the raarriage tie, and to seek to be freed from it, if the opportunity 
offered ? 

As I read this comment of yours, I could not but ask myself : 
Can my good brother Van Rensselaer have carefully studied this 
7th chapter of 1 Cor. ? Put the questions fairly, not — " when did 
the Apostle ever exhort husbands and wives not to care for the 
marriage tie, and to seek to be free from it if the opportunity 
offered," for the marriage tie, unlike that of slavery, cannot be 
dissolved by consent of parties ; but " when did the Apostle ever 
exhort the unmarried not to care for the marriage tie, but being 
free from it, to retain their freedom." And I answer, in this very 
chapter. " I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, it is good 
for them that they abide even as I. Art thou loosed from a wife, 
seek not a wife. So then he that giveth her in marriage doeth 
well ; but he that giveth her not in marriage doth better." Verses 
8, 27, 38. 

And this brings out my objection to the interpretation w^hich you 
would put upon verse 21. Throughout the chapter, in answer to 
inquiries from the church at Corinth, Paul is giving instruction 
with especial regard to the circumstances in w^hich they were placed 
at the time, and hence every special item of advice must be interpreted 
with this fact in view. Disregard this, in interpreting either the 
preceding portions of the chapter, or the parts which follow the 
passage under examination, and I see not how you can avoid the 
admission of doctrines clearly at variance with the teachings of 
other portions of the word of God ; the Romish doctrine of the 
superior sanctity of a life of celibacy, for example. 

Tried in either of these ways, then, emancipation falls into the 
category of political, and not that of religious questions. Nor will 
it avail to take it out of this category to show, — 

1. That the Church has often made deliverances on this subject 
in years that are passed. From the close of the third until near 
the beginning of the present century a union of Church and State 
has existed throughout Christendom. In our country, for the first 
tiaie since the days of Constantine, has the Church assumed that 
position of freedom which was her glory in apostolic days. It 
would be strange indeed if, in such circumstances, she has never 
transcended the limits which her great Head has prescribed ; it 
would be more than could reasonably be expected, that she had yet 
fully comprehended her true position. Political preaching, and 
political church-deliverances, instead of being the novelty which 
some imagine them, date their origin as far back as the days when 
this union of Church and State was formed. 

You quote the paper adopted by the Assembly in 1818 as con- 
taining such a deliverance respecting emancipation as you contend 
for ; and you call my attention to the fact that my old instructor. 
Dr. George A. Baxter, clarum et venerahile nomen,'' was one of 
the committee of three by whom that paper was prepared. I know 



84 



and admit all that you say about that paper. And I know also, 
that eighteen years afterwards, when Dr. Baxter was an older — and 
may I not add — a wiser man, he entertained and published very 
different views, as you will see by referring to his "Essay on the 
Abolition of Slavery," especially pp. 4 and 7. You quote, also, the 
paper adopted by the Synod of Virginia in 1800, and express the 
opinion that our Synod are ready to reaffirm this testimony in 1858. 
That you are mistaken here, you can easily satisfy yourself by read- 
ing the paper on slavery adopted in 1837, and the remarks made 
by the Virginia delegation in the convention which immediately 
preceded the separation of the Old from the New School, as re- 
ported in the second volume of Foote's Sketches of Virginia. You 
will there see that the ground assumed is precisely that which I 
occupy. 

2. Nor will it avail to show that emancipation has a hearing 
upon the well-being of a people — even their spiritual well-hei7ig. 
Human advancement in every particular — the extension of com- 
merce, the opening up of the country by railroads, improvements 
in agriculture and the mechanic arts — affects the spiritual well-being 
of man more or less directly. How could we, for instance, carry 
on the missionary operations of this nineteenth century but for the 
improvements of the nineteenth century ? It is a mark of the 
heavenly origin of Christianity that she thus subsidizes every 
agency for God's service. And this, I believe, will be more and 
more the case as "the end" draweth nigh. But this by no means 
authorizes the Church to turn aside from her appropriate work, that 
she may supervise these agencies. In the days of her greatest 
glory, a prophet tells us that " there shall be upon the bells of the 
horses, holiness unto the Lord" (Zech. 14 : 20) ; but surely, he does 
not mean to teach us that in that day the Church of God will go 
into the business of bell-founding. 

SECTION III.— MY POSITION. 

Do not misapprehend the position I have assumed respecting 
this subject of Emancipation. It is not, that the word of God 
teaches that slavery is to be "a permanent institution, on a level 
with marriage and the parental relation," but that it treats the 
question of emancipation from slavery, just as it treats the analo- 
gous question of deliverance from despotic civil rule, as a political, 
and not a religious question, and hence, makes no deliverance on 
the subject. And further, that the Church is bound to treat them 
both alike, just as her Head has treated them in the instructions 
he has given her. And let me add, if you would convince the 
many "of like faith" with me on this point, you will have to show 
either (1.) That we place the question of emancipation in the wrong 
category; or (2.) That the Church has a right to meddle with 
politics. 



85 



SECTION IV. — A SECOND QUESTION.* 

Thus far, I have discussed this subject of slavery, with the espe- 
cial purpose of determining, if possible, the proper limits of eccle- 
siastical action. Let us look at it now from a diiferent point of 
view, for the purpose of determining what our duty is, as citizens and 
Christian men, in a country where every citizen has a right to par- 
ticipation in the civil government. 

To the general proposition, that all men are bound to seek the 
well-being, temporal and eternal, of their fellow-men, no one who 
receives the Bible as the word of Grod can possibly object. The 
injunctions, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," and " All 
things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even 
so to them," in their true scope and plain import, place this duty 
beyond all question. 

How, then, can we best promote the well-being, temporal and 
eternal, of the slave race which in Grod's providence is among us ? 

SECTION V. — POPULAR ERRORS. 

Before attempting to answer this second question directly, let 
me turn your attention, briefly, to certain popular errors which, if 
I mistake not, lie at the foundation of the false reasoning current 
respecting the slave race in our country. 

I. It is a mistake to suppose that the slaves among us have any 
intelligent desire for freedom. 

Could you go from man to man among them, and ask of each 
the question — Do you desire to be free ? — from very many, and 
these the best and most thoughtful of them, you would receive a 
decided answer in the negative ; and I speak what I know when I 
say this. From others you would receive a different answer. But 
sit down, now, and question them, for the purpose of ascertaining 
what is the idea they attach to the word freedom, and in ninety- 
nine cases out of a hundred you will find that the only idea of free- 
dom they have is the idea of exemption from labour. But is ex- 
emption from labour freedom ? Or, can any one confer such free- 
dom as this upon man, until the work of human redemption is 
complete, and the Son of God has rolled back the curse laid upon 
" man sinning" in the sentence, " In the sweat of thy face shalt 
thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground ; for out of it wast 
thou taken : for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return ?" 

In confirmation of the above statement, let me call your atten- 

* All this discussion about plans of emancipation appeared to the Editor new mat- 
ter, foreign to the question of" Emancipation and the Church," and to the nature of a 
rejoinder. The Editor suggested to Dr. Armstrong the propriety of publishing it as a 
separate article, a sort of appendix to the series. But Dr. Armstrong having objected 
to this, courtesy to him required the publication of his letter, just as he wrote it. In 
the Reply to this second Rejoinder, the Editor will feel at liberty, either not to notice 
this new matter at all, or notice it now or hereafter, according to circumstances. — Ed. 



86 



tion to the two facts, apparently contradictory, which it alone ex- 
plains. (1.) That our slaves are the most contented, cheerful class 
of labourers on the face of the earth, and (2.) That the fugitive 
slaves in the Northern States and Canada are the most idle and 
worthless class in the communities to wliich they have gone. 

II. A second error respects the rights of the slave race in oUr 
countri/. 

1. Whatever may be affirmed respecting human rights in the ab- 
stract, practically, no man has a right to that which he is incapable 
of using with benefit to himself and safety to society. Or, apply- 
ing this general principle to the case before us — in the words of 
Dr. Hodge, as quoted by you in your first Letter — " the right to 
personal lihertij is conditioned hy the ability to exercise heneficially 
that rights If then the slave race among us do not possess the 
ability " to exercise beneficially the rights" of freemen — and I 
know that you will agree with me that such is the fact at the pre- 
sent time — it follows that their present slavery involves no viola- 
tion of any right of theirs to freedom, for they have no such right. 
Do not say this reasoning involves the perpetuity of slavery. The 
right to personal freedom, and the right to such improvement as 
may ultimately fit them for freedom, are entirely different things ; 
and with perfect consistency, I deny the one, whilst I fully admit 
the other ; and before I close this letter, I will show you just how 
I think their claim under the last-mentioned right is to be met and 
satisfied. 

2. The right to lahour' — in the true sense of that much-abused 
expression — that is, the right of every one willing and able to earn 
a living, to have that living, is a common right, belonging to every 
man, and a right which cannot be forfeited, excepting by such 
crime as forfeits life itself. So reason teaches ; — so teaches the 
word of God, — " And God said. Behold, I have given you" — i. e. 
Adam, our common parent — " every herb bearing seed, which is 
upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the 
fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat" (Gen. 
1 : 29, compare with 9 : 3). And every state of society which fails 
to secure this right, is vicious in so far as it fails. x\nd every civil 
government which does not protect this right of the weak and poor, 
against the rich and powerful, is faulty in so far as it does not pro- 
tect it. This right is one of the most precious temporal rights 
which the poor man has, for on this his comfort and his very life 
depend. 

This right is secured under the system of slavery which exists 
in our country to a poor, degraded race of labourers, not only bet- 
ter than it could be secured to the same race under a system of 
free labour, but better than it is secured to a more elevated race of 
labourers in Europe, under any of the systems which prevail among 
the civilized nations of the Old World. In this most important 
particular, a system of slavery, instead of interfering with man's 
right, secures it. 



8T 



III. It is an error to attribute the suffering, and vice, and criine, 
apparent among our slaves, to their slavery. 

Official returns show that the suffering, and vice, and crime, ap- 
parent among the portion of the African race in slavery in our 
country, are far less than will be found among the portion of their 
race in freedom. As well might we attribute the suffering and 
crime among the manufacturing population in England — and if we 
may believe the sworn testimony taken before commissions of Par- 
liament, the amount of suffering, at the least, is greater there than 
here — to manufactures ; or the suffering and crime of the degraded 
portion of the white population in the Northern States to their 
freedom, as that among our slaves to their slavery. 

The truth with respect to this matter is — as both observation and 
the word of God teach us — that suffering, and vice, and crime are 
the proper fruits of human degradation, and this degradation is a 
consequence of sin. Where, for a series of generations, a people 
have been sinking under the degrading influence of sin, no form of 
government, civil or social, can sever that connection which God 
has established between sin and degradation, on the one hand, and 
sin and suffering on the other. In the case of a degraded race 
situated as the African race in our country is, in so far as slavery 
exerts any influence, it is to diminish the amount of suffering, and 
vice, and crime among them, and not to increase it. 

IV. A fourth error is in attributing the degradation of our 
slaves to their slavery. 

That this degradation did not originate with slavery is placed 
beyond all question, by comparing our slaves with their country- 
men in Africa, who have never left their native shores. 

That it has not perpetuated this degradation, will be rendered 
equally evident by comparing the slaves among us now, with the 
same race when brought to this country. I doubt whether his- 
tory furnishes us with an instance in which a deeply degraded 
race have made more rapid progress, upward and onward, than 
has been made by this race since their introduction among us. 

The general reasoning we often hear on this subject is falla- 
cious, if I mistake not, because it takes no account of the grand 
obstacle to the elevation of a degraded people ; and that grand 
obstacle is idleness. If history teaches anything clearly, it is that 
you can never elevate a people in the scale of civilization, unless 
you can bring them to labour. From what I have seen of the 
African race in our country, I fully concur with Dr. Baxter in the 
opinion, " If the Southern slaves were emancipated in a body, 
and placed in a community by themselves, from their unwilling- 
ness to labour, they would sink into a savage state, and live by 
the chase, or the spontaneous productions of the earth, or else 
they would establish new forms of slavery among themselves." 
(Essay on Abolition of Slavery, p. 7.) 

To a people such as the slave race in our country, the effect of 



88 



slavery is elevating and not degrading. History points us to but 
one way — in so far as civil and political agencies are concerned — 
in which a deeply degraded race has ever yet been fitted for free- 
dom ; and that is, through the operation of a system of slavery, 
gradually ameliorating as the people were prepared for its ame- 
lioration. In this way our Anglo-Saxon race, once deemed by 
Cicero unfit even for slaves, but now in the van of civilization, 
worked their way up to freedom. 

SECTION VI. — EMANCIPATION LAWS. 

In approaching this subject of emancipation, there are certain 
points on which, I doubt not, we agree ; and it may be well to 
note them distinctly at the outset. They are, (1.) Present eman- 
cipation would be a curse and not a blessing to our slaves ; and 
(2.) Emancipation, with the prospect of the emancipated slaves 
remaining in this country, is neither practicable nor desirable, 
unless the slave race could be greatly elevated above their present 
position before obtaining their freedom. 

The plan of emancipation which you would favour is substan- 
tially that adopted by the Northern States, near the beginning of 
the present century, with the addition of a provision for the re- 
moval to Africa of the emancipated slaves. 

This plan embraces three particulars, viz. : 

1. A law prospective in its operation — say that all slaves born 
after a certain year shall become free at the age of twenty-five. 

2. Provision for the instruction of those to be emancipated in 
the rudiments of learning. 

3. Provision for their transfer and comfortable settlement in 
Africa when they become free. 

To all such plans as this I have several objections, for which I 
will ask a candid and careful examination. 

Objection 1st. I believe that any such law would, in its practical 
working, prove, to a very large extent, a transportation and not 
an emancipation law. 

Such was the fact with respect to the laws adopted in the New 
England and Northern States. In his " Modern Reform Exa- 
mined" (p. 31), Dr. Stiles makes the statement: "When emancipa- 
tion laws forbade the prolongation of slavery at the North, there 
are living witnesses who saw the crowds of negroes assembled 
along the shores of New England and the Middle States, to be 
shipped to latitudes where their bondage could be perpetuated ; 
and their posterity toil to-day in the fields of the Southern 
planter." In confirmation of this statement of Dr. Stiles, I can 
show you in Virginia, some fifty of the descendants of these very 
transported slaves, proved to be such by the records of our courts : 
and I will add, it was the bringing out of this fact, in the course 
of a trial upon which I attended, about fifteen years ago, that first 
distinctly turned my attention to this matter. 



89 



When a few years ago it was proposed to make Missouri a free 
State by the operation of such a law, so strongly did this same 
tendency manifest itself, that the friends of a proper emancipa- 
tion — Dr. N. L. Rice among the number — were obliged to lift 
their voice against it, declaring that it would be better to have no 
emancipation at all than such an one as this. In truth, the New 
England and Northern States, although they had but a small 
number of slaves at the time they became free States," never 
did emancipate a large part of that number. Their so-called 
emancipation laws were, to a large extent, practically transporta- 
tion laws ; and the transportation of slaves by accumulating them 
on a smaller area, is detrimental, and not beneficial to the slaves 
themselves. 

I call your attention to this fact, not to reproach the North — 
for it is not by crimination and recrimination the cause of truth is 
to be promoted — but to show you, in the light of history, what 
the practical working of these "prospective emancipation acts" is 
likely to be. 

Objection 2d, But supposing the objection just stated could be 
obviated in some way — by the modern "compensation" scheme, 
for example — I object to the plan, on the ground that you cannot 
prepare the slave race among us for freedom by any short course 
of education, such as that proposed. Often, when a child, did I 
hear repeated the proverb, " there is no royal road to learning." 
And so may we say of a degraded race in slavery, " there is no 
royal road to freedom." 

Let me give you the result of an experiment of my own on this 
point. Some eighteen years ago, I had living in my family a young 
slave woman, who seemed anxious to become free and to go to 
Liberia. She was a person of good character, and had been re- 
cently married to a man also of good character, who seemed like- 
minded with herself. After consulting with her husband's master, 
a personal friend of mine, and ascertaining that he was willing to 
adopt a similar course with him, I advanced the money for her 
purchase, with the understanding that she was to remain in my 
service until it was repaid. In the way proposed, the two became 
free when from 32 to 35 years of age. In the meantime, they 
were taught to read, and in other ways the effort was made to fit 
them for freedom. The result of all this has been that, instead of 
sending two good colonists to Liberia, my friend and I have added 
two to the number of free negroes in Virginia. 

Were this a solitary case, I might think it an exceptional one. 
But after I began to get my eyes open to the probable result in 
this case, I was led to inquire into the result in other cases of like 
nature. And I can give you case upon case, with names and dates, 
where similar experiments have resulted in the same way. 

But, perhaps, some may say they ought to have been compelled, 
for their own good, to go to Liberia. To all such suggestions as 



90 



this, my reply is, (1.) It is vain to expect to make good citizens 
for Liberia by sending them there against their will, like convicts 
to a penal colony. (2.) We deceive ourselves when we speak of 
Africa as "their native country," "their home." Africa is no 
more a "native country," "a home," to our slaves, in their own 
apprehension, than the North of Ireland is my country, or Holland 
is yours. (3.) Emancipation laws which compel expatriation are 
cruel in their practical operation, since they involve the sundering 
of ties both of kindred and affection, — and thus revive, under an- 
other name, one of the harshest features of slavery, a feature which 
has now, practically, almost disappeared from the slavery existing 
in our country. 

Objection od. I have yet a third objection to the plan of eman- 
cipation we are considering, and it is that I see not the least pros- 
pect of Liberia being able to do the part assigned it in this plan 
for a long time to come — certainly not while you and I, my good 
brother, have a part in what is done under the sun — if the work 
of colonization is to be carried on with due regard to the safety of 
the colony, or a proper attention to the wants and claims upon us 
of the African race in our country. 

In order that you may understand my objection, let me set be- 
fore you certain thoughts and opinions on the subject of Liberia 
Colonization, and let me ask for them a candid consideration. 

SECTION VII. — CAPACITY OF LIBERIA FOR IMMIGRATION. 

In all our calculations about Liberia, we must remember that 
she is yet an infant colony, and that the greatest danger which 
does now or has yet threatened her, is from the too rapid immi- 
gration of such colonists as we are able to send her. 

On this point. Rev. J. Leighton Wilson — eighteen years a mis- 
sionary in Africa — writes : " The directors of the colonization en- 
terprise, we think, have erred in directing their efforts too exclu- 
sively to the one object of transporting emigrants to Liberia. 
Many regard the number actually sent out as the true, if not the 
only test of the prosperity of the enterprise. But this is a serious 
mistake, and if adhered to much longer may prove the ruin of the 
cause. It requires something more than mere numbers to consti- 
tute a thrifty and flourishing commonwealth. On the other hand, 
an undue accumulation of idleness, improvidence, and vice, such as 
would be likely to accrue from thrusting large numbers of these 
people indiscriminately into the bosom of this infant republic, would 
certainly result in its entire overthrow." (Western Africa, p. 410.) 

Rev. D. A. Wilson — principal of the Alexander High School in 
Liberia — in the October Number of the Presbyterian Magazine, 
w^rites : " A mere passage across the Atlantic works no transfor- 
mation of character. Would that Colonizationists would think of 
this, and regulate their actions accordingly. Would that masters 



91 



in emancipating their slaves would remember it, and learn that 
their first duty is, not to emancipate them, but to prepare them for 
freedom. Indiscriminate immigration has been a great curse to 
Liberia. 

That we may form some idea — upon reliable data — of what a re- 
public can do in the way of assimilating an immigrant population, 
let us call to mind the experience of our own country. We number 
not far from thirty million of the best portion of the human race. 
Our average immigration is not far from a quarter of a million 
annually; and these immigrants are certainly as far advanced in 
all that fits them for becoming good citizens as any we can hope to 
send to Africa for a long time to come. And yet, this nation is 
tasked to the utmost to assimilate this immigration, and no thought- 
ful patriot would be willing to see it greatly increased at the pre- 
sent time. 

SECTION VIII. — TRUE FIELD OP OPEHATION FOR COLOXIZATION. 

The Colonization Society was formed, and the colony of Liberia 
founded, not to operate as an adjunct to a general emancipation, 
but with a very different object. 

The second article of the constitution of the American Coloni- 
zation Society declares, " The object to which its attention is to 
be exclusively directed, is to promote and execute a plan for colo- 
nizing, with their own consent, the free people of colour residing 
in our country, in Africa, or such other place as Congress shall 
deem expedient." 

In order to a fair understanding of the case, let me ask your 
attention to the following points. 

I. The African race in America consists of two distinct classes, 
viz. : the free people of colour, and slaves. The number of the first- 
mentioned class is now not far from half a million, of whom rather 
more than one-half are resident in the slave States ; the remainder 
in the free States. 

II. In so far as any claim upon us is concerned — either on the 
ground of our common humanity, or any wrong done to their 
fathers by our fathers in their original transfer to this country — 
the two classes stand upon precisely the same footing. Neither 
class can claim precedence of the other. 

III. The present condition of the free people of colour, in this 
country, is worse than that of our slaves; and their condition in 
the free States is worse than in the slave States. For proof of 
this I refer you to the statistics of "pauperism" and "crime" in 
the census returns for 1860. 

IV. The portion of the race in slavery are rapidly multiplying, 
and gradually rising in all that constitutes civilization, in the best 
sense of that word ; whilst the portion of the race in freedom in 
the free States, like the poor Indians, are fading, and must ere 



92 



long perish, unless something more can be done for them than has 
yet been done. 

Y. The portion of the race in freedom furnishes the best and 
most hopeful subjects for Liberian colonization. The representa- 
tions given by some — not pro-slavery men — of this class as " a 
debased and degraded set" — "more addicted to crime, and vice, 
and dissolute manners than any portion of the people"-— " a pes- 
tiferous class, whose increase in Ohio would be the increase of 
crime, misery, and want, to a fearful extent," whilst true of them 
as a class, as the census returns proved beyond all question, yet 
fails to make a distinction which truth requires at our hands. 
Among this degraded class there is to be found a number, say one 
in ten, of the most intelligent and best prepared for successful 
colonization, of all the African race in our country. " Many of 
them, have been emancipated either for merit in themselves or 
their ancestors" (Governor Wise); and the deteriorating effects of 
freedom, in contact with the white man, must have been rapid, 
indeed, if this be not the case. 

To these, my observation would teach me, that we ought to add, 
say one more in every ten, who are as well prepared for coloniza- 
tion as those who would be sent to Africa under the operation of 
such schemes of emancipation as that we are considering. 

Thus it appears that one-fifth, or one hundred thousand of the 
free coloured people of our country, are as well or better prepared 
for colonization, on the coast of Africa, than the portion of the 
African race now in slavery. 

Bring together, now, these facts. These two classes, the free 
coloured people and the slaves, have an equal claim upon us, in so 
far as our common humanity or wrong done to their fathers is 
concerned. The present condition of the one is worse than that 
of the other. The one, unless it can be saved by colonization, or 
some other such instrumentality, must ere long perish, whilst the 
other is multiplying and improving ; and this portion, more mise- 
rable at the present time and in prospect, yet will furnish a large 
body of colonists, better fitted for successful colonization than 
those which will be procured from the other portion. And does 
not every principle of a wise. Christian philanthropy require us 
to adhere to the course marked out by the founders of the Colo- 
nization Society, and attend first to the free people of colour, and 
only after our work here has been done, to think of resorting to 
colonization as an adjunct to emancipation ? 

SECTION IX. — WHAT THE COLONIZATION SOCIETY HAS DONE. 

At the close of my second letter, in a quotation from Bishop 
Hopkins, a small portion of those now in slavery are pointed out 
as proper subjects for colonization in Africa. These would become 
free in the natural course of things, and in all such calculations 
ought to be counted with free persons of colour. 



93 



It is from this class, I believe, most of the colonists, hitherto 
sent to Liberia, have been obtained. Of the five hundred and 
eighty-seven persons carried by the Mary C. Stevens, sixty-three 
only were born free. (See Porty-first Annual Report of Coloniza- 
tion Society, pp. 13, 14.) As yet, then, the Colonization Society 
has hardly touched the large class of free coloured persons in our 
country. 

The Colonization Society was formed in 1817, but not until 
1824 can the colony of Liberia be considered as fairly established. 
Since then thirty-four years have elapsed, and the colony now 
numbers about ten thousand, of whom but a part, say three thou- 
sand, are from the class of free coloured persons in our country. 

SECTION X. — WHAT LIBERIAN COLONIZATION MAY REASONABLY 
BE EXPECTED TO DO. 

1. I have already directed your attention to the grand obstacle 
to rapid immigration, in so far as Liberia is concerned, viz. : the 
difficulty in assimilating such an immigration as we are able to 
send her. 

On the subject of " Christian appliances," as you term them, in 
their relation to the rate of immigration, listen to Rev. J. Leighton 
Wilson: "Another thing against which it behooves these mission- 
ary societies to be guarded, is that of doing too much for the 
Liberians, in the way of providing gratuitous education and preach- 
ing. We regard it as one of the chief failings of the Liberians, 
and one of the most serious hindrances to their improvement, that 
they are too willing to be taken care of. They have no self-sup- 
porting schools ; very little has been done to support the Gospel 
among themselves ; and there is a disposition to look to the mis- 
sionary societies to do everything of the kind for them, and the 
sooner they are taught to depend upon themselves the better." 
(Western Africa, p. 410.) 

2. The grand obstacle to a rapid emigration, on the part of the 
free people of colour in our country, is their deep-rooted distrust 
of the capacity of their own people for safely conducting the 
affairs of government. This obstacle is well set forth in the lan- 
guage of a young free coloured man I had in my employ for four 
years, endeavouring to fit and persuade him to go to Liberia, when 
be put an end to the matter by saying, " I know more of negroes 
than you do, and I had rather live among white folks." 

Both of these obstacles are of such a nature as to require time 
to overcome them, and to teach us the absolute necessity of great 
prudence in the management of African colonization. 

If now it has taken us thirty-four years to place a colony of ten 
thousand, about three thousand of whom are from the class of 
"free persons of colour," on the coast of Africa, when can we 
reasonably calculate that our work will be done with the one hun- 



94 



dred thousand who remain, and who, upon every ground of sound 
policy as well as humanity, claim precedence of the portion of 
their race in slavery ? 

"Across that bridge of boats," said a certain eloquent speaker, 
referring to the line of steamships which it was proposed that the 
General Government should establish between this country and 
Liberia, " there will go, with a tramp like an army with banners, 
a mighty crowd, whose exodus will be more glorious than the 
exodus of Israel." Well, it would be an easy matter for our peo- 
ple to build this "bridge of boats." It would be, comparatively, 
an easy matter to start the "mighty crowd," amid the waving of 
banners and great rejoicing ; but what is to become of them at the 
other end of the bridge ? I confess, there is no vision rises before 
my eyes but that which Dr. Baxter saw, the vision of this " mighty 
crowd," through "unwillingness to labour, sinking into the savage 
state, and living by the chase, or the spontaneous productions of 
the earth, or else establishing new forms of slavery among them- 
selves." 

And can I, as a God-fearing man, favour any scheme involving 
such a catastrophe as this ? I may be mistaken in my opinions 
respecting this matter, but they are opinions honestly entertained, 
and not hastily adopted. I am a friend to Liberian colonization. 
I have confidence in its accomplishment of great good if prudently 
conducted ; and it is because I am a friend, that I deprecate any 
such measures as are contemplated in the popular emancipation 
schemes. 

SECTION XI. — THE WORK AND THE WAY. 

Is there nothing we can do, and do now, for the slave race 
among us ? 

I reply, yes ; there is much that can be done ; work at which 
we may labour now, work for the Church, work for the Christian 
citizen, work for the philanthropist, and all of it work which will 
tell upon the slave race, and their preparation for ultimate free- 
dom, if freedom be what God in his providence has in store for 
them. 

As I read the lesson which history teaches — and in revelation I 
find no deliverance on the subject — there is but one way in which 
a people, in whose case the process of degradation by sin has been 
going on through many generations, and upon whom, in conse- 
quence thereof, slavery has come, can be raised and fitted for free- 
dom again, and that one way is through the agency of a gradually 
ameliorating slavery, the amelioration taking place as they are 
prepared to profit by it. Individual exceptions will occur, as 
stated at the close of my second letter, but for a race, history 
points to no other way. In this way our Anglo-Saxon race, once 
sunk under a more galling slavery than the African has ever suf- 
fered in our country, was prepared for freedom. 



95 



This process of amelioration is going on, and has been going on 
ever since the introduction of new bodies of slaves, through the 
agency of the slave-trade, ceased. Many of the cruel laws, once 
necessary to restrain a barbarous people, have disappeared from 
our statute-books, whilst the others have become, to a very large 
extent, a dead letter, and, in the natural order of things, will dis- 
appear. 

For all such amelioration, Christianity lays the only sure foun- 
dation. The Church of God, without departing from the letter of 
her instructions, without stepping aside at all from the course which 
Christ has marked out for her, must do a great work in preparing 
the way for any amelioration of slavery, safe and profitable for the 
slaves themselves ; and when the Church has once done her work, 
the Christian citizen and the philanthropist will do what remains 
to be done. 

But for unreasonably protracting this letter, I would present 
this matter more in detail. As it is, I must refer you for a fuller 
exhibition of the scheme to the " Christian Doctrine of Slavery," 
pp. 117-136. 

SECTION XII. — EFFECTS OF ENTERTAINING THIS EMANCIPATION 

SCHEME. 

As I have remarked, I have no confidence in the happy opera- 
tion of any general emancipation scheme; at least, for a long time 
to come; and the present agitation of the matter is doing harm, 
and has been doing harm for some years past, both North and 
South. As Dr. Hodge has well said, " The great duty of the South 
is not emancipation, but improvement;" and, if I mistake not, the 
present agitation of emancipation has been the principal means of 
turning aside attention from the present duty. 

At the South, it has, in so far as it has operated at all, diverted 
attention from our present duty, — the religious instruction and 
gradual elevation of the African race among us. Never, until we 
look the matter fully in the face, and come to understand that there 
is no short process by which we can be rid of our responsibility, 
will we be prepared to do all our duty in this behalf. 

At the North, it has turned aside the attention of Christian men 
from their own appropriate field of labour. You have some two 
hundred thousand of this African race in the free States, and their 
present condition is worse than that of the portion of the race at 
the South, as the census statistics of "pauperism and crime" abun- 
dantly prove; and their future prospects are no better than their 
present condition. 

What are you doing for them? Ameliorating your laws ? Not 
that I hear of. Colonizing them in Africa ? Once in a great 
while I hear of a small band leaving the Northern States for Libe- 
ria ; but the great mass of colonists are from the Southern States. 



96 



! 



Are you trying to educate them for better things ? Here I rejoice 
that I can answer — at least for our Church — in a different tone. 
You have founded the Ashmun Institute. And that God's rich 
blessing may rest upon it, should be the prayer of every intelligent 
friend of Africa. But besides this, I hear of nothing that Chris- 
tian men at the North are doing in this way. And what is more, 
whilst at the South it is often a subject of anxious inquiry, in our 
Church councils and in the private circle, what can we do for this 
people who, in God's providence, are made dependent on us ? — I 
hear of no such inquiry at the North. Indeed, the only action I 
have heard of, for some years past, even by any of our conservative 
synods, is that of which you tell me in your second letter, — the re- 
affirming of "the testimony of 1818" by the Synod of Pittsburg 
and Ohio, which, to take the best view of it, is a telling one's neigh- 
bours what they ought to do, instead of asking what can I do in 
the field which God's providence has assigned to me? 

It is in no spirit of retaliation that I write this ; but that I may 
show you what the effect of a premature agitation of the Emanci- 
pation question has been. And could I reach my conservative 
brethren at the North, and "speak a word in their ear," I would 
say, Take care, lest you find occasion for the lamentation, " They 
made me keeper of the vineyards, but mine own vineyard have I 
not kept." 

SECTION XIII. — REMARKS ON DR. VAN RENSSELAER'S THIRD 

LETTER. 

1. Most of your third letter is based upon a misapprehension, 
for which I frankly acknowledge that I am to blame. When I 
wrote — " The correctness of this brief history of anti-slavery 
opinions," &c. — I thoughtlessly used the word anti-slavery in a 
literal sense, but not the sense which it has in the current use of 
the day. By reading the extract from Bishop Hopkins's " Ameri- 
can Citizen," to which the sentence refers, you will see that I 
spoke of the opinion, " that the institution, in itself, involved a 
violation of religion and morality," the opinion which has given 
rise to " the assaults against the lawfulness of the institution." 
This is the peculiar type of anti-slavery opinion distinguished as 
abolitionism ; and abolition opinion is the expression I ought to 
have used. 

In addition to the proof already given of the correctness of the 
statement of Bishop Hopkins, in the paragraph referred to, viz., 
" If we go on from the days of the Apostles to examine the doc- 
trine and practice of the Christian Church, we find no other views 
entertained on the subject" — i. e., no other views than that " the 
institution, in itself, did not involve a violation of religion or mo- 
rality," let me call your attention to one fact. " Most of the Fa- 
thers" (Hodge), "The Fathers of the Church from the time of 



97 



Chrysostom" (Olshauseo), interpreted the passage chiefly relied 
upon by you, viz., 1 Cor. 7 : 21, to mean : " Art thou called being 
a slave, care not for it ; but even if thou canst be free, prefer to 
remain as thou art," (See Hodge on 1 Cor., Olshausen's Commen- 
tary.) I do not cite this as a correct interpretation of the pas- 
sage, for I do not so receive it. I cite it simply to show you what 
the current sentiment of the ancient Church must have been when 
such an interpretation of this passage was commonly received. 

2. In your letter, in two instances, you strangely confound 
things that differ. (1,) To declare that certain opinions respect- 
ing human liberty have originated in an infidel theory of civil 
government, is one thing. To declare that those who hold such 
opinions are infidels, is a very different thing. (2.) You confound 
opposition to slaveholding, with opposition to the African slave- 
trade, including in itself, as the latter always has and always will, 
man-stealing ; as if the lawfulness of the one implied the lawful- 
ness of the other. Surely, the distinction made, in the law of 
Moses, in the New Testament, and in the laws of our own country, 
between slaveholding and man-stealing, i. e., " kidnapping free 
persons to be sold as slaves," is a sound distinction, and one that 
has a good foundation in the nature of the two things. 

SECTION XIV. — CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

1. In discussing, as I have, this " Second Question" (§ 4), I 
have been discussing a question which lies outside the proper 
range of the Church's action ; and I have done it, in part, to show 
you that such a limitation of the power of the Church, as I have 
contended for, does not imply the denial of any claim which the 
African race has upon us, either as men or as Christians. The 
key to my position is this : I see no good reason to believe that the 
African race in slavery among us will attain to that elevation re- 
quisite for a safe and profitable freedom, in any other way than 
that in which other races, once similarly situated, have risen. And 
if I cannot see distinctly a freedom for them in the future, it is for 
just the same reasons that I cannot see distinctly the future over- 
throw of despotic government throughout the earth. I know not 
how far this elevating process shall have proceeded ere this present 
dispensation shall close. "When shall the Son of Man come?" 
and " When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the 
earth?" And if I deprecate the raising of the question of eman- 
cipation now, it is on the same ground upon which I would adopt 
a similar course, were I a citizen of France, with respect to civil 
liberty, viz., it will do much present harm, and can do no possible 
present good. 

2. In my statement of the "Christian doctrine of slavery," and 
in insisting upon the political character of the question of emanci- 
pation, I am contending for no mere abstraction. My doctrine, in 

7 



98 



its practical operation, will forever exclude the "slavery question" 
from our Church councils — where its introduction has done nothing 
but harm — and will exclude it in precisely the way in which Christ 
and his apostles excluded it in their day, and yet leave the Church 
all the work which Christ has assigned her ; and a glorious work 
it is, — a work which, well done, will confer upon the African race 
in our country benefits infinitely transcending all which the most 
perfect civil liberty on earth could confer. 

When first my attention was particularly directed to the lan- 
guage used in 1 Tim. 6 : 1-5 (the passage quoted in my first 
Letter), that language seemed to me unaccountably harsh, directed, 
as it is, against what I thought a very innocent form of error. But 
as years have rolled on, and the character of the error there con- 
demned has developed itself before my eyes, I have come to under- 
stand better why the Holy Ghost uses the language he does. 

Trace the history of Abolitionism for the last twenty-five years, 
and mark its doings. What that is " true, or honest, or pure, 
or lovely, or of good report," in State or Church, which it has 
touched and not defiled, — or gotten into its power and not de- 
stroyed ? 

It has made enemies of those once friends. It has broken up 
the communion of God's people. It has led even gray-haired 
ministers of the Gospel to revile their brethren of the same Church 
as "slave-driving hierarchs," for daring to stand up for God's 
truth as it was " delivered to the saints." 

It has entered the pulpit, and banishing the Gospel of Christ, 
has substituted for it the preaching of narrow-minded, bitter, sec- 
tional politics. It has entered our catholic associations for pur- 
poses of Christian benevolence, and now, the American' in the 
title of our "American Home Missionary Society," stands there, 
like the sculptured skull and cross-bones on some old tombstone, a 
memento of worth and piety departed. It has entered our church 
councils — and along with it have come strife and dissension. First, 
"railings, evil surmisings, and perverse disputings," have taken 
the place of Christian conference. And then, the ploughshare of 
division has been driven through "the heritage of God." 

"0 my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their as- 
sembly, mine honour, be not thou united." 

Yours, truly, 

Geo. D. Armsteong. 



99 



DR. VAN RENSSELAER'S FIRST REJOINDER. 

ON THE PROPER STATEMENT OF THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE OF 

SLAVERY. 

To THE Rev. George D. Armstrong, D.D. 

An amicable discussion of slavery, instead of suggesting to you 
" the dark and bloody ground" of Kentucky, with its scenes of 
savage warfare, only required our presence on the field of scriptural 
truth. The appearance of brother Armstrong, with rifle in hand, 
is not a pleasant clerical sight, introduced by the law of association 
into the perspective ; nor is it a very terrible one, for I have dis- 
covered that, even with the aim of so good a marksman as himself, 
a rifle-shot is "not necessarily and in all circumstances" exact. 

Your allusion to "the shrieks for freedom" is the first political 
allusion made in our discussion, and this footprint upon the " dark 
and bloody ground," leading into a trail of the wilderness, I respect- 
fully decline to follow. 

Your remark that sections and divisions "secure perspicuity" 
and "guard against misapprehension," is a very good one. 

SECTION I. — DR. ARMSTRONG ADMITS THE TRUTH OF MY 
GENERAL PROPOSITION. 

The issue between us is whether my proposition that " slavehold- 
ing is not necessarily and in all circumstances sinful," is liable to 
just exception as an inexact, or inadequate, expression of the scrip- 
tural doctrine in the premises ; or whether your proposition that 
" slaveholding is not a sin in the sight of God" is more accurate 
and complete. The characteristic difi'erence in the phraseology of 
the two propositions is that mine has a special reference to circum- 
stances, whilst you deny the right to admit them. Your own inci- 
dental concessions decide that the introduction of circumstances is 
right and necessary. 

§ 1. You expressly declare, among the articles of your faith on 
this subject, that " slavery is expedient or inexpedient, right or 
wrong, according to circumstances.'' p. 68. I have substituted, 
as you permit, "slavery" for "civil despotism;" and here I find 
my own proposition written down as true by Dr. Armstrong, under 
"circumstances" quite remarkable in an objector. I am aware 
that you maintain that this doctrine is not deducible entirely from 



100 



Scripture, but that it is partly deducible from reason, and includes 
a political view. This point I shall examine presently. All that 
I desire you to notice now, is that my proposition, irrespective of 
the mode of its proof, is really the true 07ie, by your own admis- 
sion. 

§ 2. In your original Letter, you deny that " all slaveholding is 
sinless in the sight of God." Of course, some slaveholding is sin- 
ful ; and what but circumstances must determine its character ? 
You also explicitly declare that, " when we state the proposition, 
that slaveholding is not a sin in the sight of God, it can apply to 
such slaveholding only as subsists in conformity with the law of 
God." p. 11 and 12. Here again, do not circumstances decide 
whether it is justifiable or not ? 

§ 3. You, over and over, admit, in your last Letter, that slavery 
classes with adiapliora^ or things indilferent. Civil despotism, or 
slavery, "belongs in morals to the adiaphora, or things indifferent:" 
p. 68, 69, 72. Now the characteristic, formal nature of such 
things is that they are not per se, or necessarily and in all circum- 
stances, either right or wrong, but that they may be either right or 
wrong according to circumstances. 

With all these admissions in favour of my form of statement, 
made so clearly and palpably by yourself, it would be difficult to 
see what opening you leave for further assaults upon it, were it not 
for a distinction you set up between the scriptural and the tvJioIe 
view of the subject, which I shall proceed to examine. It is a great 
point gained, when Dr. Armstrong plainly concedes that the luhole, 
or complete view of the subject demands the introduction of " cir- 
cumstances," which is the chief point in dispute between us. 

SECTION II. — DR. ARMSTRONG ON POLITICS ; DISTINCTION 
BETWEEN SCRIPTURE AND REASON, ETC. 

The distinction you make between the scriptural and the politi- 
cal relations of the subject is one of the two significant points of 
your Rejoinder. 

§ 1. Whilst my proposition is admitted to be right, in view of 
the combined testimony of Scripture and reason, you maintain that 
Scripture alone does not authorize it. Is not this, in effect, saying 
that the Bible is not a sufficient rule of faith and practice on the 
subject of slavery? Mark; w^e are not now discussing any of the 
questions of capital and labour, or any State plans of general eman- 
cipation. The question before us is one concerning our relations 
to God. It is the case, we will suppose, of a slaveholding member 
of your own church, whose conscience is agitated by the question 
of duty in regard to his slaves. Has he any other guidance for the 
general principles of his conduct, than his Bible ? Can he go to 
the laws of the State for peace of mind? Or can his reason supply 
any light which has not its source in revelation ? Do you say that 



101 



this is not a question of morals ? I reply that you yourself admit 
that slavery " belongs in morals to the adiapliora.'' If so, it must 
be brought to the test of God's word, as interpreted by the best 
use of reason. On such a question as this, we cannot say, " this 
part of the doctrine comes from revelation, and that part from 
reason," or " slavery is right according to Scripture, but right or 
wrong according to politics." What we are aiming at is a general 
formula, embracing the moral principles by which slavery can be 
judged. And human reason, making its deductions from the gene- 
ral spirit, principles, and precepts of Scripture, deduces the luliole 
doctrine, which has the authority of " Thus saith the Lord." Ac- 
cording to your view, reason is an independent source of authority, 
going beyond the word of God, on this practical moral question ; 
whilst I maintain that reason finds in the Word of God the moral 
elements for the determination of duty, and must gather up the 
results of scriptural declarations with all care, and with subjection 
to the Divine authority. The great error of the abolitionists con- 
sists in running wild with your doctrine, and they undertake to 
declare by " reason" even what the Scriptures ought to teach. 

§ 2v Your own declarations in regard to despotism and slavery, 
which we both place in the same category, show that the Scriptures 
actually cover the entire subject. You state, on p. 69, and also 
80, that "the doctrines of passive obedience," and of "the Divine 
right of kings," are not implied in the scriptural injunctions to 
obey the powers that be, and to submit to every ordinance of man 
for the Lord's sake. That is to say, you admit that passive obedi- 
ence is not a scriptural doctrine, or, in other words, that civil revo- 
lution is authorized, under certain circumstances, by the word of 
God. This is the doctrine our fathers taught and preached in the 
Revolutionary War, and which the Jacobites and non-juring divines 
in England resisted. This is true doctrine. And yet, on the same 
page, a few lines farther on, you inconsistently state that " the 
right of revolution is a political right, the doctrine of revolution a 
political doctrine; and, therefore, we have no reason to expect that 
they will be taught us in the word of God ; I receive them as true 
upon the authority of reason:'' p. 69. So that the conclusion you 
seem finally to reach is that " passive obedience" is the doctrine 
of Scripture ; but the right of revolution, the doctrine of reason ! 
And let it be noted, you come to this conclusion, although you had 
a few lines before, declared that passive obedience is "not implied" 
in the command to obey Nero ! The truth must lie somewhere in 
the confusion of these contradictory propositions ; and, in my 
judgment, it lies just here : resistance to tyrants may be justified 
by the Word of God ; and, therefore, the doctrine of revolution is 
a scriptural doctrine. 

§ 3. Your attempted distinction between what is scriptural and 
what is political, is an entire fallacy, so far as the general princi- 
ples of duty are concerned. You say that " the Scriptures were 



102 



given to teach us religion and not politics ;" p. 69. But is not 
"politics" the science of our duties and obligations to the State? 
The Bible regulates our duties to God, to ourselves, to our fellow 
creatures, and to the State. We owe no duty to the State that 
cannot be derived from the Bible. All our political duties are 
moral dtities. Is not obedience a political duty? And does not 
the Bible place obedience on moral grounds — "wherefore, ye must 
needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake :" 
Bom. 13 : 5. All our duties to the State are taught in the Scrip- 
tures. The Word of God gives us the general principles of morality 
that apply to civil despotism and slavery, whilst the details about 
revolution and the plans of emancipation are political measures, 
which belong to the State. Your error is in saying that, emanci- 
pation being political, places it beyond the reach of the Bible and 
of the Church. 

§ 4. I have, by no means, intended to deny that there is a broad 
distinction between the Church and the State, as likewise between 
each of these and the family. But this does not withdraw either, 
or all of them, from the reach of moral, religious, and Christian 
obligation. A wrong, immoral, or sinful act does not cease to be 
such, because it is done in the family or by the State. It is just 
as " properly sinful" as if done by an individual. If a community, 
in their political capacity license gambling, or prostitution, the act 
of granting the license, or using it, is none the less sinful in both 
parties, because it is done politically. If the people in any of 
these United States vote to establish a despotism with power to 
persecute Christianity, they do a wicked act. If the constitution 
and laws of Virginia should be so altered as to prohibit masters 
from teaching their slaves to read the Bible, all parties to such a 
proceeding would be guilty of sin. The State is under moral obli- 
gations to act righteously. Slaveholding, as it now exists in the 
southern portion of our country, may not now be, nor do I believe 
it is, a sinful relation on the part of the great body of the masters, 
nor does it involve sin on the part of the lawgivers simply for autho- 
rizing its present existence. But a condition of things may arise, 
in which what is now sinless may become sinful, whether allowed 
or not by the State. Things in their own nature sinful, or things 
indifferent in themselves which in given circumstances are incon- 
sistent with Christian love, justice, and mercy, are not made other- 
wise, because authorized by the civil power. The continuance of 
slavery by law, when " well being" and " the general good" require 
emancipation, would be sinful. 

§ 5. A singular climax is reached by your statement, that, when 
you say, civil despotism, or slavery, is "expedient or inexpedient, 
right or wrong, according to circumstances," you " do not mean 
wrong in the proper sense of siriful:' p. 69. Then, my dear 
Doctor, why use the word at all ? In what sense do you use it ? 
If wrong does not properly mean "sinful," what does "right" pro- 



103 



perlj mean? and what does " morals" properly mean ? and what 
does adiapliora properly mean ? Is any meaning better deter- 
mined than the ordinary meaning of "right and wrong ?" Do 
these terms, in moral questions, ever fail to denote the moral 
quality of actions and relations? Ought right and wrong to have 
two meanings in a minister's vocabulary ? 

It is, indeed, not to be denied that some things, in themselves 
indifferent, may be inexpedient, which could not at the same time 
be pronounced sinful. Such things as protective tariffs and free 
trade, greater or less costliness of dress or equipage, in certain cir- 
cumstances, might be put into this category. But there are others 
again, whose inexpediency arises from the circumstances that ren- 
der them immoral^ or direct instruments of immorality and irre- 
ligion. They are inexpedient, because, though in some circum- 
stances innocent, yet in the circumstances in question, they are 
immoral. The mere sale, or use, of ardent spirits is a thing indif- 
'ferent. It is sinful or sinless, according to circumstances. But, if 
a man were to keep a tippling shop, in which he derives his profits 
from pandering to vicious appetites and making drunkards of the 
young men of a community, this is criminal and unchristian, although 
he could show a thousand licenses from the civil authority for doing 
it. The same would be true of engaging in the African slave 
trade, although Southern convention after convention were to favour 
it, and the Federal Government were to sanction it. And, in 
general, to take your own expression, any slaveholding, which does 
not "subsist in conformity to the law of God," is of the same cha- 
racter. Although there are adiaphora in the sphere of religion and 
politics which may be deemed inexpedient without being pronounced 
sinful, there are others which are inexpedient, because, in the cir- 
cumstances, the doing of them inevitably involves sin. Of this sort, 
is the procuring^ or tlie holding of slaves, in circumstances which 
make it contrary to Christian love, justice, and mercy. And it 
alters not the moral nature of such conduct to label it "political." 

§ 6. It is deserving of notice that slaveholding is not a political 
institution in the sense that it is made obligatory by law. A slave- 
holder can emancipate his slaves in Virginia at any time he sees 
proper, or his conscience will allow ; and notwithstanding certain 
restrictions in some of the States, it is believed that in none is 
the subject altogether withdrawn from the master's control. In 
your State, the continuance or discontinuance of slaveholding is a 
question, depending, indeed, upon considerations of the social and 
public welfare, but yet not requiring political action. Emancipa- 
tion has been generally regarded, in such cases, as a benevolent, 
moral, or religious act, and it is performed by the individual in the 
fear of God, without reference to the powers that be. The general 
spirit of the laws, as well as of public opinion, may be even opposed 
to emancipation ; and yet the individual, as a citizen, has a perfect 
right to give freedom to his slaves. In such cases, in what sense 



104 



is the continuance or discontinuance of slaveholding in part a 
political doctrine, which it is the business of the statesman to ex- 
pound, and the civil ruler to apply ?" Granting, however, certain 
political relations, I have shown that this does not exclude the 
general principles of the Bible from controlling the subject. 

§ 7. Nor does it alter anything, so far as our present issue is 
concerned, to say that what the Scriptures teach is one thing, and 
what I know by the natural faculties is another thing. The distinc- 
tion between these things is important, and where the teachings of 
reason and revelation are in conflict, requires us to submit reason 
to revelation. But it does not admit of the possibility of two con- 
tradictor}^ beliefs in the same mind, at the same time, in regard to 
the same subject. I cannot believe on the authority of Scripture 
that all slaveholding is sinless, and on the authority of my reason 
that some slaveholding is sinful. These propositions exclude each 
other. If I believe one to be true on Avhatever evidence, I cannot, 
at the same time, believe the other to be true, on any evidence 
whatsoever. Now, as Dr. Armstrong admits, with Dr. Hodge, p. 
72, that, in some circumstances, domestic slavery may be wrong 
and unjust, and that it is so in circumstances involving a violation of 
the Divine law, p. 6, you must hold what you call your scriptural 
doctrine that " slaveholding is not a sin in the sight of God" in 
the sense of a particular and not a universal proposition, i. e,, that 
some slaveholding is not a sin — and not that all slaveholding is sin- 
less, and consequently you must hold that the former of these two 
last statements, gives the true and exact Scripture doctrine, and 
the whole doctrine, too. 

Withal, your proposition, that ^' slaveholding is not a sin in the 
sight of God" is not in the language of Scripture. And, even if 
it were, it is only necessary to remember that a proposition, which 
is a general one in its form, is often in reality, like yours, a parti- 
cular one. It is one of the simplest laws of interpretation, that, 
where the extent in which the subject of a proposition is used, is 
not determined by such qualifying adjuncts as "some," "all," 
"every," &C., we must infer it from other things which show the 
writer's meaning. Those who are conversant with Arminian and 
Universalist polemics, know how often it is necessary to adopt 
some exegetical qualification. When your meaning is explicated 
in full and exact expression, it emerges into precisely my own pro- 
position. Your distinction between Scripture and reason is, quoad 
hoc^ utterly pointless. Nor does it require a very high exercise of 
the " natural faculties" to see this. 

§ 8. It is with some surprise that I find you saying that you 
accept some things as true, but not as binding upon the conscience. 
You say, " the first statement [yours] sets forth truth which must 
bind the conscience, and exactly defines the limits of Church power. 
The latter [mine] though I receive it as true, does neither the one 
nor the other;" p. 70. The fact is, to a conscientious man this 



105 



is a sheer impossibility.- So far as a man believes a given propo- 
sition to be true, he is bound, and feels bound in conscience, to act 
as if it were true. Some propositions and truths are, indeed, more 
immediately ethical in their nature than others, and thus speak 
more directly to the conscience. Among the first, and self-evident 
principles of ethics is this, that we ought to cleave and conform to 
the truth. The proposition that two and two make four is not a 
scriptural or ethical proposition. Neither is the proposition that 
our country is increasing in population with unexampled rapidity. 
But he, who regards them as true, is bound by Scripture and con- 
science to act as if they were so. He sins in doing otherwise. The 
Bible does not explicitly announce ever}^ true thing which we are 
to believe, and to be bound by in our conduct, although its prin- 
ciples lead to it. It assumes that a multitude of things, which con- 
trol our interpretation and application of it, are known otherwise. 
And it enjoins us, "if there be any virtue," to regard "whatsoever 
things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things 
are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, 
whatsoever things are of good report :" Phil. 4 : 8. Whatever, 
therefore, you believe to be true respecting slaveholding, must bind 
your conscience. Slaveholding can never get beyond the authority 
of conscience and the Bible. 

SECTION III. — DR. ARMSTRONG ON THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 

In showing that my form of statement was coincident with that 
of the General Assembly, a comparison was instituted between it 
and all the deliverances of the Assembly from 1787 to 1845. You 
carefully avoid any reference to any action of the General As- 
sembly, except the one of 1845, which is the only one you venture 
to claim as in any respect covering your ground. Why is this, 
Doctor? Are you afraid of the whole light ? Or do you think 
that the action of 1845 was scriptural, whilst all the previous action 
was only deducible by " reason f Or do you believe that the tes- 
timony of 1845 was contrary to, and subversive of, the testimony 
of 1787 and of 1818 ? If you take the latter ground, then I beg 
you to remember that the Assembly of 1846 passed the following 
resolution: '•''Resolved^ That in the judgment of this House, the 
action of the General Assembly of 1845 was not intended to deny 
or rescind the testimony often uttered by the General Assemblies 
previous to that date," Baird's Digest, 814. So you perceive that 
the Assembly's testimony is one harmonious tvliole. 

But without pressing you further on this point, I turn to your 
singular evasions of the forms of statements adopted by the Assem- 
bly of 1845. These forms are obviously, both in spirit and in 
words, so precisely like my own, that the only method of getting 
round them is to raise the cry of "abolition!" Your argument 
is that, because the abolitionists use a certain form of expression, 



106 



therefore, the expressions of the Assembly, which are similar but 
in the negative^ are "like poor land, wliich the more a man has, the 
worse off he is." Now does not my good Brother Armstrong know 
that it makes no difference from what quarter the language comes, 
provided the Assembly judged it suitable to give expression to its 
own opinions ? But such a trivial objection — which is worth to a 
controversialist about as much as a Virginia "old jBeld" is to a 
planter — has not even the solidity of " poor land," but vanishes 
away into a cloud of dust before the sweeping statement of the 
General Assembly, in these words : " The question, therefore, 
which this General Assembly is called upon to decide, is this : Do 
the Scriptures teach that the holding of slaves, without regard to 
circu7nstanceSy is a sin, the renunciation of which should be made 
a condition of membership in the Church of Christ ?" p. 812. That 
was the point which the Assembly not only expressed in its own 
language, but decided by its last action, viz., that circumstances 
enter into the justification, or condemnation, of slaveholding. 

It may be added that Dr. N. L. Bice, who drew up the Beport, 
is not apt to use the contradictory of the language of abolitionists, 
unless it is the very best form to meet their fanaticism. There is 
not a particle of evidence from the records, however, to show that 
the Assembly merely followed the language of others. The four 
quotations varg inform, which is the best possible proof that the 
language is original and independent, whilst the idea of "circum- 
stances" pervades the whole Beport. Your "leafless tree" must, 
therefore, continue to remain in its withered state ; for it receives 
neither light nor heat from the luminary of the General Assembly. 
Here are the four quotations referred to : 

1 . The question, which is now unhappily agitating and dividing other branches 
of the Church, is, whether the holding of slaves is under all circumstances, a 
heinous sin, calling for the discipline of the Church." 

2. "The question which this Assembly is called upon to decide is this : Do 
the Scriptures teach that the holding of slaves, without regard to circumstances, 
is a sin ?" 

3. " The Apostles did not denounce the relation itself as sinful." 

4. " The Assembly cannot denounce the holding of slaves as necessarily a 
heinous and scandalous sin." 

If the reader wishes to see how the uniform testimony of the 
General Assembly sustains my form of stating the doctrine (whilst 
it ignores that of Dr. Armstrong), he may find the record on page 
41 of this Pamphlet. 

SECTION IV. — DR. ARMSTRONG'S WEAPON TO DO BATTLE WITK, 

I Still think that your mode of stating the doctrine lacks the 
power of resisting abolitionism. Nor am I convinced of the con- 
trary by the " fact" you adduce, which is, indeed, somewhat 
shadowy or indefinite. If we are to understand by the " fact," 



• 



lOT 



Dr. Hill's high estimate of your skill as a champion, it does not 
necessarily follow that, after seeing your statement of the doctrine. 
Dr. Hill should consider it the best possible; and if he should, I 
do not see that his opinion is more of " a fact" than mine. Or if 
the " fact" be that the two selected champions could not agree on 
the terms of the combat, I do not think this is a proof of skill on 
either side. Or if the "fact" be that, after you had put forth your 
argument, you gave your adversary the challenge to fight in the 
mode of your own choice, I do not think it a necessary and logical 
inference that his declination shows he considered your arguments, 
in all respects, unanswerable. And if he did, it is not clear that 
all other people should ; or that my opinion should not have as 
much weight as that of a man who, for some reason or other, has 
not condescended to notice your excellent book at all. I deny, 
therefore, the correctness of your charge, that I have " compelled 
you to become a fool in glorying," because there has really been 
no occasion to glory. 

Do not understand me as, in the least, disparaging your ability 
as a logician and controversialist. Far from it. No man, pro- 
bably, in Virginia could sustain, with more plausibility and force, 
your defective proposition on slavery. But notwithstanding all 
this exhibition of your controversial skill, I believe it to be a " fact," 
that your proposition is " no weapon to do battle with." The state- 
ment that " slaveholding is not a sin in the sight of God," without 
reference to circumstances, has not the capacity to do full execu- 
tion. As a cannon-ball with holes and cavities cannot be made to 
go straight, so your statement of doctrine zigzags away from the 
mark, in spite of all your propelling powers. 

I have never doubted the purity of your intentions. But it is a 
singular development of human nature that men, who were born at 
the North, should generally be the warmest advocates of extrava- 
gant pro-slavery views. This is not said in invidiam; but as a 
simple rejoinder to your statement that, being born at the North, 
you had many prejudices to overcome, before reaching your present 
opinions. I do not doubt the truth of this latter statement. 

SECTION V. — DR. ARMSTRONG ON SYLLOGISMS. 

§ 1. Let us now turn again, from comparatively irrelevant matter, 
to the real point at issue. You have put your argument, with some 
show of triumph, into the form of a syllogism, and peremptorily 
call me to meet the argument " fairly and squarely," for " thus 
only can you [I] influence the opinions of thinking men :" p. 78. 
I accept the syllogistic form and the appeal to thinking men, and 
shall endeavour to show the weakness of your first and principal 
syllogism. The others require no notice, now. Your syllogism is 
as follows : 

" A. Whatever Christ and his inspired Apostles refused to make 



108 



a bar to communion, a court of Christ has no authority to make 
such. 

But, Christ and his inspired Apostles did refuse to make 
slaveholding a bar to communion. 

" Therefore, a court of Christ has no authority to make slave- 
holding a bar to communion :" p. 76. 

§ 2. In the first place, I deny the correctness of your logical 
view of the syllogism ; and in the second place, I maintain that, 
even if the syllogism were faultless, it would not prove that my 
statement of the Scripture doctrine of slavery was wrong. 

As to the syllogism, the error is in supposing that there are no 
circumstances, of any sort, in the premises. It is true that no 
circumstances, or qualifications, are introduced expressly^ or in so 
many words ; but they are implied; and, according to " a funda- 
mental principle of logic," they are implied, to an equal extent, in 
the conclusion. I have shown, over and over again, that your own 
proposition, when analyzed, has reference to some, not to all sla- 
very ; and, therefore, that some circumstances are necessarily in- 
troduced. In your answer to the question whether your proposi- 
tion " involves the idea that all slaveholding is sinless in the sight 
of God," you say, " By no means :" p. 6. And again, your pro- 
position " can properly apply to such slaveholding only as subsists 
in conformity with the law of God :" p. 7. Now all such circum- 
stances, that render slaveholding unlawful, are implied in the pre- 
mise, and consequently in the conclusion. The resolution, adopted 
by the General Assembly, explicitly refers to circumstances in the 
general, under which slavery exists in the United States. The 
Assembly's paper was formed in view of those circumstances, and 
they qualify the whole document. 

It is perfectly clear that "circumstances" must be necessarily 
implied to some extent, in your syllogism, according to your theory 
of its meaning; and "circumstances" are involved in the conclu- 
sion by a "fundamental principle of logic." 

§ 3. Admitting, however, that slaveholding, within the limits 
specified by yourself (which exclude the general circumstances 
connected with "well being" and the "public welfare," called by 
you " political"), cannot be made a bar to Church communion, 
what then ? Does this prove that slaveholding does not become 
sinful, when "well being" and the "public welfare" require eman- 
cipation ? Or does it prove that slaveholding may continue to exist 
without sin " until Christ's second coming ?" By no means. Slave- 
holding may become sinful under circumstances in which it cannot 
be made the subject of Church discipline. It is just because slave- 
holding is right or wrong according to circumstances, that it is not 
allowed to become a bar to Church communion. Expediency can- 
not be made the ground of universal and perpetual obligation ; and, 
therefore, things that in morals are classed among the adiapliora 
are not necessarily within the range of Church discipline. But 



109 



are such things, therefore, innocent under all circumstances ? Of 
course not. Their very nature implies the contrary. The fact 
that the Church is precluded, by the nature of the case, from dis- 
ciplining persons, whose conduct is "right or wrong according to 
circumstances," does not acquit such persons of sin. They may 
be great sinners " in the sight of God," for holding their fellow- 
men in bondage under circumstances contrary to " well being" and 
the "public welfare;" although the Church, which cannot read the 
hearts of men, or decide upon the details covering every case, may 
be prevented from exercising discipline. Your syllogism, there- 
fore, proves nothing. 

As the proper jurisdiction of the Church comes up in your next 
Letter, I will reserve its further discussion for that occasion. 



SECTION VI. — DR. ARMSTRONG EXPLAININa HIS PROPOSITION. 

One of the most singular things in this controversy — which, I do 
not wonder, begins to assume to you the appearance of "a dark 
and bloody ground" — is that my friend. Dr. Armstrong, first de- 
clares that every proposition "should be so expressed" as to bear 
examination "apart from all explanations," and then feels him- 
self compelled, at every point, to offer explanations. This neces- 
sity is inherent in the nature of your doctrinal statement, and its 
defectiveness is made manifest by your own rule. A proposition 
that needs continual explanations, must be either obscurely or illo- 
gically expressed. I think yours is both ; and obscurely, because 
illogically. 

§ 1. Your first explanation is uncalled for ; because your propo- 
sition, faulty as it is, was never charged with sanctioning the "in- 
cidental evils of slavery." 

In saying, with Dr. Spring, that " the bondage of the Hebrews 
partook of the character of apprenticeship rather than of rigorous 
servitude," reference was made to the mode of t7'eatme7it under the 
two relations, without confounding their nature. 

It seems that my good brother Armstrong is willing to adopt 
the phraseology, " Slaveholding, in itself considered, is not sinful," 
provided I will allow him to make an explanation that explains it 
away; but on all such explanations as causes it to mean, "slave- 
holding free from its incidental evils," I am constrained to put my 
veto. Your explanation makes the meaning to be, " slaveholding 
171 itself considered is right, if the circumstances are right ;" that 
is, " slaveholding, without regard to circumstances is right, if the 
circumstances are right !" 

§ 2. Your proposition certainly seems to justify the permanence 
of slavery. Notwithstanding your protests and disclaimers, and 
although you mean not so, your doctrine establishes passive obedi- 
ence and the perpetuity of despotism and slavery. You set forth, 



110 



as an article of faith, binding the conscience, that we must obey 
the powers that be, and that despotism and slavery are not sins. 
You object to interpolating into these propositions any qualifying 
or limiting circumstances, and have written two elaborate Letters 
against it. You, indeed, believe that circumstances may make them 
wrong: p. 7. But, then, you believe this "upon the authority 
of reason," and therefore, as you hold, this belief does not bind the 
conscience. Whoever, then, under the most oppressive despotism 
contends for the right of revolution, or when a community has 
fairly outgrown the state in which slavery is otherwise than unjust, 
for emancipation, is contending for what does not bind any man's 
conscience ; while the doctrine that despotism and slavery are no 
sins — to which you will not allow any limitation from circumstances 
to be applied — confronts him, and does bind his conscience. How, 
if this be so, can a conscientious man, in any " circumstances" un- 
dertake to withhold obedience from despots, and exercise the " right 
of revolution," or venture to promote emancipation ? 

§ 3. The proposition that " slaveholding is not a sin in the sight 
of God," is so broad as to appear to cover up many circumstances 
that make it wrong. As an abstract proposition, without any ex- 
planation, — and you say, it ought to be so clear as to dispense with 
explanations — it certainly seems to involve the consequences men- 
tioned in one of my Letters. Some of your explanations, of course, 
relieve it from some of the objections ; but not from all. As a 
moral rule for keeping the conscience in a healthful condition, it 
is peculiarly faulty. If the relation becomes a sinful one, when- 
ever the circumstances of " well being" and the " public welfare" 
require its dissolution, how completely in the dark does your state- 
ment keep the moral agent ! What you call the scriptural doctrine 
is only a part of the true doctrine, and it tends to lull the con- 
science under the professed guidance of revelation. 

§ 4. Your objection to my proposition that it "acquits the slave- 
holding member of the Church by a sort of whip and clear him 
judgment," is as untenable as ever, notwithstanding your version 
of that expression. It seems, by the bye, that the expression, 
instead of meaning "strike first, and then acquit," means "acquit 
first, and then strike !" How my statement can be interpreted into 
Lynch-law, which, either way, means the same thing, I am at a 
loss to conjecture. Mine is, you perceive, the exact contradictory 
of the abolition doctrine. It, in fact, " whips" the abolitionist, 
whilst it " clears" the slaveholder, if " circumstances" are in his 
favour. Far be it from me to cast any odium upon my brethren at 
the South, who are faithfully endeavouring to do their duty in the 
midst of many trials and anxieties. " God bless them in their 
work of faith and labour of love," is the prayer of ten thousands 
of Christians at the North. I have honestly thought that my pro- 
position affords to the conscientious slaveholder a clearer vindica- 
tion than yours ; and it is not encumbered with the difficulties and 
logical consequences, that press yours on every side. 



Ill 



§ 5. The last paragraph in your Letter is singularly out of place. 
In arguing against your statement, I attempted to show that the 
opinions, which you complain of my charging upon you, were 
" fairly involved" in that form of statement. A controversialist 
is not supposed to charge the obnoxious inferences as the opinions 
of his adversary, but rather, to take it for granted that he repu- 
diates these opinions, and hence will be constrained to repudiate 
the doctrine that leads to them by legitimate consequences ; or at 
all events, if not he, that the public, to whom the argument is also 
addressed, will repudiate it. However this may be, no one has a 
right to complain of an adversary for showing the evil consequences 
of his opinions. To object to the refutation of an argument by 
showing its false consequences, is to object to its being refuted at 
all. 

SECTION VII. — THOUGHTS TOWARDS THE CLOSE. 

§ 1. It is not at all unlikely that many thinking men," who care- 
fully consider our respective statements, will think the statement, 
" slaveholding is not necessarily and in all circumstances sinful" 
a much better one than " slaveholding is not a sin in the sight of 
God." My statement needs no explanations, whilst yours requires 
props on every side. 

§ 2. Your suggestion of spending ten hours to my one, in con- 
sidering the subject of slavery, is of no avail in an argument. Moral 
propositions depend upon being supported by truth, not time. 
There are some men, who are " always learning, and never able to 
come to a knowledge of the truth." This, of course, does not 
apply to yourself ; especially, because you are so near the truth, 
that there is every reason to expect that you will soon reach it, in 
its perfection. 

§ 8. Your complaint that our brethren at the South have been 
subjected to much misapprehension and obloquy by fanatical men 
at the North is unfortunately true. I deprecate this as much as 
you do. But a good degree of this abuse has been owing to the 
ultra defenders of slavery, whose unwarrantable statements and 
arguments have provoked a spirit of alienation and a fierce reaction 
both in sentiment and in opinion. The continuance of the peace 
of our Church depends, under God, upon the continuance of the 
moderation which has hitherto characterized our spirit, opinions, 
and measures. 

§ 4. You say, " Let Mr. Barnes specify the circumstances, and 
I doubt whether even he would object to your statement:" p. 76. 
This is precisely what Mr. Barnes has no right to do for another 
man. He may form his own judgment of the case, and express it, 
and argue it, and endeavour to make all others receive it as true. 
But he cannot enforce his own views as a moral standard for others. 
As he admits that "Abraham's slaveholding was no sin," there is 
good reason to hope for candour, in general. But neither he, nor I, 



112 

nor any other man, can make his own rule of morality, in matters 
that are adiapliora^ to be authority for anybody else. 

§ 5. You ask, why your statement sounds in my ears " like an 
old tune with unpleasant variations," and sung, you might have 
added, by the chorister almost alone, whilst Dr. Hodge's sounds 
like " Old Hundred," in which the whole congregation joins ? I 
will tell you. Your form of statement is unknown to the General 
Assembly, from its organization dow^n to the present time. You 
cannot point to a single sentence in all our Church testimonies that, 
rightly "said or sung," harmonizes with yours. Dr. Hodge, on 
the other hand, agrees with the General Assembly, whose form of 
statement is also adopted by your opponent. Dr. Hodge is in 
sympathy wdth all the deliverances of the General Assembly, whilst 
to many of them you carefully avoid allusion, in the very midst of 
the subject which invites an appeal to them ; and even the testimony 
of 1845 you appear to desire to explain away, and to extract the 
very pith of doctrine from that majestic rod, that buds even like 
Aaron's. 

§ 6. The eternal principles of justice, which are revealed in the 
Holy Scriptures, and are the reflection of the attributes of God, 
must decide the various questions relating to domestic servitude, 
and justify or condemn "according to circumstances." Whilst we 
both agree in the appeal to that tribunal, whose decision is " of 
record," happier is he who will be found at last to have interpreted 
that record aright, and to have exhibited the truth in nearest con- 
formity to the Divine will ! 

I am yours, truly, 

C. Vax Rensselaer. 



DR. VAN RENSSELAER'S SECOND REJOINDER. 

EMANCIPATION AND THE CHURCH.* 

To THE Rev. G. D. Armstrong, D.D. : 

Your second rejoinder discusses three subjects, 1. Emancipa- 
tion and the Church. 2. Emancipation and the State, or Schemes 
of Emancipation. 3. The History of Anti-slavery Opinions. 

The second subject is an entirely new one, which I have hitherto 
refrained from touching, and which, under ordinary circumstances, 
I should still decline to discuss. 

SECTION I. — IS EMANCIPATION EXCLUSIVELY A POLITICAL 
QUESTION ? 

It has been my endeavour to discriminate carefully between the 
moral and political aspects of slavery, and to disclaim any inter- 

* The course of remark pursued in thisarticle, was determined chiefly by Dr, Arm- 
strong's Rejoinder, to which it is a reply. Tlie Scriptural argument is stated more 
particularly in my previous letters. 



113 



ference of the Church, with the proper work of the State. The 
State alone possesses the right to establish and enforce measures 
of general emancipation. But does legislation exhaust the sub- 
ject ? In my judgment, it does not. Emancipation has moral 
and religious relations, as well as political. No slaveholder has 
the moral right to keep his slaves in bondage, if they are pre- 
pared for freedom, and he. can wisely set them free.* 

1. There is a distinction between a moral end, to be kept in 
view, and the political means of attaining that end. The mea- 
sures to secure emancipation may be political measures, but the 
end contemplated rests upon a moral obligation. It is my duty, 
as a Christian, to prepare my slaves for freedom, when Provi- 
dence opens the way ; and yet, I may be so restrained by State 
laws as to depend upon political intervention for a plan of emanci- 
pation. With the latter, the Church has nothing to do. 

2. Slavery is not, like despotism, enjoined by law. Every in- 
dividual may be a slaveholder or not, as he pleases. Here is an 
important distinction, which you entirely overlook. Whilst the 
State has the right to control emancipation, and can alone ori- 
ginate general measures, binding upon all its citizens, it com- 
monly leaves emancipation to the discretion of the slaveholder 
himself. In Virginia, any person may emancipate his slaves, who 
makes provision for their removal out of the State. The act of eman- 
cipation, under these circumstances, is a lawful act of the master, 
which in no way interferes with politics. Where shall a person thus 
situated, whose conscience troubles him, go for direction 1 To the 
State? To the members of the Legislature ? No ! The question is 
one of duty to his God. It involves a religious and moral prin- 
ciple ; and, admitting that his slaves are prepared for freedom, it 
is outside of politics. The slaveholder must search the Scriptures, 
or he may consult the testimonies of the Church for her interpre- 
tation of the Scriptures. The Church has a perfect right to give 
to her members advice on this subject which will guide them in 
perplexity ; and this advice may be volunteered, if circumstances 
seem to demand it. 

3. Slaves stand, ecclesiastically, in the relation of children ta 
parents. Our General Assembly has declared that Christian mas- 
ters, who have the right to bring their children to baptism, may 
also present for baptism, in their own name, the children of their 
slaves. Can it be conceived that the Church has no right to coun- 
sel her members concerning the nature and continuance of this 
peculiar relationship throughout her own households ? 

4. Slaveholding is "right or wrong, according to circumstances." 
It belongs in morals to the adiapliora^ or things indiiferent. It 
may be right in 1858, and wrong in 1868, according as the slaves 
may be not prepared, or prepared, for emancipation. The very 

A fair compensation may be claimed for the pecuniary sacrifice involved in 
manumission, either from the State or from the slaves themselves. 

8 



114 



nature of the class of subjects to which it belongs, places it within 
the scope of church testimony. The continuance or discontinuance 
of slaveholding, concerns the character of the slaveholder as a 
righteous man. 

5. Even if the State should altogether remove emancipation from 
the power of the individual slaveholder, and determine to exercise 
exclusive jurisdiction over the matter, what then ? In the first 
place, the obligation would still rest upon the master to elevate his 
slaves, and to set them free whenever the way was open. And in 
the second place, the master would be bound, as a citizen, to exert 
himself to obtain from the State the necessary public measures to 
secure at the right time the same object. 

Emancipation is not "properly a political question" in any sense 
that makes it cease to be a moral and religious one. So far as it 
partakes of the latter character, the Church has a right, within the 
limits of her authority, to utter her testimony in favour of it. 

SECTION ir. — SLAVERY AND THE INTERESTS OF THE LIFE TO 

COME. 

One of your arguments for excluding emancipation from the in- 
fluence of Church testimony is that ''it does not immediately con- 
cern the interests of the life to come." This point can best be de- 
termined by impartial witnesses, personally acquainted with the 
practical workings of slavery. Allow me, then, in all courtesy, to 
introduce the testimony of some of the ablest and most respected 
ministers of the Presbyterian Church, who are familiar w^ith the 
system in its best forms. A Committee, appointed by the Synod 
of Kentucky, made a Report to that body, in 1835, in which they 
characterized the system of slavery in the following manner : 

"There are certain effects springing naturally and necessarily out of 
such a system, which must also be considered. 

" 1. Its most striking effect is, to deprave and degrade its stihjects hy re- 
moving from them the strongest natural checks to human corruption. 
There are certain principles of human nature by which God works to 
save the moral world from ruin. In the slave these principles are eradi- 
cated. He is degraded to a mere creature of appetite and passion. These 
are the feelings by which he is governed. The salt which preserves 
human nature is extracted, and it is left a putrefying mass. 

"2. It doo7ns thousands of human beings to hopeless ignorance. The 
slave has no motive to acquire knowledge. The master will not un- 
dergo the expense of his education. The law positively forbids it. Nor 
can this state of things become better unless it is determined that slavery 
shall cease. Slavery cannot be perpetuated if education be generally or 
universally given to slaves. 

"3. It deprives its subjects, in a great measure j of the privileges of 
the Gospel. Their inability to read prevents their access to the Scrip- 
tures. The Bible is to them a sealed book. There is no adequate pro- 
vision made for their attendance upon the public means of grace. Nor 
are they prepared to profit from instructions designed for their masters. 



115 



They listen when in the sanctuary to prophesyings in an unknown 
tongue. Comparatively few of them are taught to bow with their masters 
around the domestic altar. Family ordinances of religion are almost un- 
known in the domestic circles of the blacks. 

4, This system licenses and produces great cruelty. The whip is 
placed in the hands of the master, and he may use it at his pleasure, 
only avoiding the destruction of life. Slaves often sulFer all that can be 
inflicted by wanton caprice, by grasping avarice, by brutal lust, by ma- 
lignant spite, and by insane anger. Their happiness is the sport of every 
whim, and the prey of every passion that may enter the master's bosom. 
Their bodies are lacerated with the lash. Their dignity is habitually 
insulted. Their tenderest affections are wantonly crushed. Dearest 
friends are torn asunder. Brothers and sisters, parents and children, see 
each other no more. There is not a neighbourhood where these heart- 
rending scenes are not displayed. There is not a village or a road that 
does not behold the sad procession of manacled outcasts, whose chains 
and mournful countenances tell that they are exiled by force from all 
they hold dear. 

5. It produces general licentiousness among tlie slaves. Marriage, 
as a civil ordinance, they cannot enjoy. Their marriages are mere con- 
tracts, voidable at their master's pleasure or their own: x\nd never, in 
any civilized country, has respect for these restraints of matrimony been 
more nearly obliterated than it has been among our blacks. This system 
of universal concubinage produces revolting licentiousness. 

" 6. Tliis system demoralizes the ichites as ivell as the Hacks. The 
masters are clothed with despotic power. To depraved humanity this is 
exceedingly dangerous. Indolence is thus fostered: And hard-hearted- 
ness, selfishness, arrogance, and tyranny are, in most men, rapidly de- 
veloped and fearfully exhibited. 

^'7. This system draws doion upon us the vengeance of Hea ven. ^If 
thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn to death, and those that are 
ready to be slain ; if thou sayest. Behold, we knew it not ; doth not he 
that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth 
he not know it? and shall he not render to every man according to his 
works ?' ' The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised 
robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy; yea, they have oppressed 
the stranger wrongfully. . . . Therefore have I poured out mine in- 
dignation upon them : I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath ; 
their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord.' 
Such is the system, such are some of its effects." 

The right of the Church to testify against the permanence of a 
system of this character, cannot be resisted by pointing to the 
overruling providence of God, through which many slaves have 
been brought into his kingdom. The Bible, it is true, treats the 
distinctions of this life as of comparatively little consequence, and 
enjoins submission even to wrong-doing and persecution. But 
must the Church, therefore, refrain from testifying against all 
social and moral evils, and from exhorting her members to use 
their best endeavours to bring them to an end ? 

The two facts adduced by you, do not prove that the Church 
has no interest in emancipation. 1. In regard to the number of 



116 



church members among the slaves, I deny that ^' a larger propor- 
tion of the labouring classes belong to the Christian Church where 
the labourers are chiefly slaves, than in the Northern States, -where 
slavery does not exist." 

2. Your second fact, that the number of church members among 
the slaves, is nearly double the number of communicants in the 
heathen world, proves that God has overruled the system of slavery 
for good, but not that the Church has no interest in its abrogation. 
When we consider that at least fifteen thousand ministers of the 
Gospel live in the Slave States, being in the proportion of one 
minister to seven hundred of the W'hole population, while, on the 
other hand, the number of missionaries among the heathen is only 
in the proportion of one minister to three hundred thousand of the 
population, the comparison by no means exalts slavery as an in- 
strument of evangelization. Look, rather, for a better example to 
the Sandwich Islands, where society has been Christianized in a 
single generation. 

The system of slavery, as appears from the analysis of its evils 
by our Kentucky brethren, has so many and immediate connec- 
tions with the life to come, that the Christian Church may wisely 
testify in favour of its abrogation, as a lawful eiad, whenever Pro- 
vidence opens the way for it. 

SECTION III. — SLAVERY AND THE BIBLE. 

The Word of God, when fairly interpreted, contains much in- 
struction upon this subject. In the first place, the exhortation of 
Paul to the slaves is : Art thou called, being a servant ? Care not 

for it. But IF THOU MAYST BE FBEE, USE IT BATHER." (1 Cor. 

7 : 21.) This last declaration proves that slavery is not a natural 
and permanent condition ; that liberty is a higher and better state 
than bondage ; and that emancipation is an object of lawful desire 
to the slaves, and a blessing which Christian masters may labour 
to confer upon them. In endeavouring to escape the power of this 
apostolic declaration, you maintain that it has only a local applica- 
tion, and that " throughout the chapter, in answer to inquiries from 
the Church at Corinth, Paul is giving instruction with especial re- 
gard to the circumstances in which the Corinthians were placed at 
that time, and hence, every special item of advice must be inter- 
preted with this fact in view." The same thing is stated in your 
book. 

1. Admitting your local interpretation to be the true one, what 
then ? Does not my good brother Armstrong see that, if he in 
this way gets rid of Paul's declaration in favour of freedom, he 
also impairs the permanent obligation of Christian slaves to remain 
contented in their bondage ? If the second clause of the sentence 
has a local application, and is limited to the state of things in the 
Corinthian Church, is not X\iq first clause limited by the same con- 
ditions ? 



117 



2. Again. The Apostle, in this chapter, carefully discriminates 
between what he speaks bj "permission" and what bj "command- 
ment;" and it is strange logic that, because some passages, before 
and after the 21st verse, are of limited application, therefore every 
verse in the chapter is so. All that relates to virgins, and to the 
temporary avoidance of matrimony, &c., is declared to be merely 
advisory, in view of the existing state of things, or " the present 
distress;" whereas, the exhortation to believers to be contented 
with their external condition, from v. 17 to v. 24, is spoken by 
Divine authority; "and so ordain I in all the churches,'' v. 17. 
The whole of the passage, 17 — 24, is manifestly an authoritative 
declaration of inspiration. 

3. Your reasoning in regard to 1 Cor. 7 : 21 would be much 
more to the purpose, if the hypothesis were that persons were 
compelled hy laiu to enter into the marriage state, or to marry par- 
ticular individuals. This would be analogous, in the most material 
points, to the case of the slaves. Surely, if one might be free from 
such compulsion, he ought to choose it rather, and that not only 
in apostolic times, but in every age. 

Neither your incorrect interpretation nor your incongruous illus- 
tration weakens the force of Paul's famous declaration in favour of 
freedom, as the best social condition and one that may rightfully 
be kept in view. Dr. Hodge says, in loco, "Paul's object is not to 
exhort men not to improve their condition, but simply not to allow 
their social relations to disturb them. He could, with perfect con- 
sistency with the context, say, 'Let not your being a slave give 
you any concern ; but if you can become free, choose freedom 
rather than slavery.' " If the Church, following Paul's example, 
can give this exhortation to slaves, she can at least exhort and 
advise masters to take measures to prepare their slaves for freedom, 
whenever Providence shall open the way for its blessings. 

I have not rested the right of the Church to keep emancipation 
in view, simply upon this single text, but I have showed that, not 
only do " the universal spirit and principles of religion originate 
and foster sentiments favourable to the natural rights of mankind," 
but that " the injunctions of Scripture to masters tend to and ne- 
cessarily terminate in emancipation." "If the Scriptures enjoin 
what, of necessity, leads to emanicipation, they enjoin emancipation, 
when the time comes ; if they forbid what is necessary to the per- 
petuity of slavery, they forbid that slavery should be perpetuated." 
" The Church, therefore, may scripturally keep in view this great 
moral result, to the glory of her heavenly King." (See Letters.) 

SECTION IV. — THINGS THAT AVAIL, OR AVAIL NOT. 

1. You remind me that " it will avail nothing to show that the 
Church has often made deliverances on the subject in years that are 
passed,'' and that "political preaching" and "political church- 
deliverances" date back "from the days of Constantine," whea 



118 



Church and State became united. Here is an ingenious attempt 
to dishonour history, and to beat down ancient, as well as modern, 
testimony. 1. You seem to admit, on reconsideration, that the 
general testimony of the Church, from the days of Constantine, is 
against the perpetuity of slavery. 2. But how do you account for 
the fact that the General Assembly of our Church, which, from its 
very organization, has heen free from State dominion, has uniformly 
testified in favour of preparing the slaves for liberty ? On refer- 
ring to your rejoinder, I find this aberration accounted for on the 
ground that our Church has not had time to "fully comprehend 
her true position !" A monarchist might say that, for the same 
reason, our fathers prematurely drew up the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, not having waited long enough to comprehend the true 
position of their country ! How much time, beyond half a century, 
does it take the Presbyterian Church to define her interpretation 
of the word of God ? The last deliverance of the General Assem- 
bly, in 1845, was afiirmed by that body to be harmonious with the 
first deliverance in 1787. Fifty-eight years produced no variation 
of sentiment. This uniform testimony of the highest judicatory of 
the Church must naturally possess great weight, or will "avail" 
much, with every true Presbyterian.* 

2. You add, " Nor will it avail to show that emancipation has a 
hearing upon the ivell-heing of a peojole — even their spiritual well- 
being.'' I am truly glad to obtain from Dr. Armstrong this inci- 
dental and gratuitous admission, that emancipation really has a 
bearing upon the best interests of the human family. I thank my 
good brother for it ; although he immediately attempts to nullify it 
by the declaration that " commerce, railways, agriculture, manu- 
factures," &c., which also promote the welfare of society, cannot, 
simply on that account, become the subjects of ecclesiastical con- 
cern. Our Foreign Missionary Board might certainly build or 
charter a vessel, if necessary ; and it actually sends out printers 
to work presses, farmers to till the soil, and physicians to minister 
to bodily health. On the same principle, it might send out 
" bells" for the mission churches, or even cast them in " foundries," 
if bells were of sufficient importance, and could not be otherwise 
obtained. But the principle on which the Church testifies in favour 
of emancipation is, that it is a moral duty to set slaves free, when 
prepared in God's providence for freedom; and if the performance 
of a moral duty has "a bearing upon the well-being of a people," 
must it therefore be set aside ? 

3. You also state that it will avail nothing in this argument, 

* If Dr. Baxter was a "wiser man*' "eighteen years" after 1818, and was there- 
fore entitled to the consideration of higher wisdom in lb36, then still higher wisdom 
is due to the General Assembly, in 1846, when that body reaffirmed the testimony 
of 1818, twenty-eight years after the issuing of their great document. 

I have yet to learn that Dr. Baxter changed his views on the subject of slavery. 
At least, no quotation of his sentiments by Dr. Armstrong proves it. I have sought 
in vain for a copy of Dr. Baxter's pamphlet. Will any friend present a copy to the 
Presbyterian Historical Society? C. V. R. 



119 



unless I can show that you ''place emanc{]jat{on in the wrong cate- 
gory^ or that the Church has a right to meddle with politics.'' This 
is going over ground already discussed. Let me say, again, that 
the exhortation of the Church to keep emancipation as an end in 
view, does not prescribe either the mode or the time of emancipa- 
tion, and does not in any way come in conflict with the State ; and 
the Church does not "meddle with politics," when she concerns 
herself about moral duties. If it be a moral duty for a Christian 
to elevate his slaves and to set them free, when prepared for free- 
dom, the Church has a right to make that declaration, provided 
she thinks it fairly deducible from the spirit, principles, and pre- 
cepts of the word of God. 

SECTION V. — A NEW QUESTION ! POLITICS. SCHEMES OF EMAN- 
CIPATION. COLONIZATION, ETC. 

The largest part of your Rejoinder is taken up with new matter, 
which is foreign to the discussion of "Emancipation and the 
Church," and which, according to law, is irrelevant in a Rejoinder, 
the nature of which is an answer to a previous Replication. .1 
regret that you have insisted upon opening this new field of dis- 
cussion ; but, believing that your remarks leave wrong impressions 
upon the mind of the reader, I shall take advantage of the occa- 
sion to throw out suggestions from a different stand- point. 

SECTION VI. — POPULAR ERRORS. 

I propose, without finding fault with some of the popular errors 
on your list, to add to their number. I do this, in order to pre- 
sent additional and true elements which belong to the solution of 
this intricate and difiicult problem. 

I. It is a mistake to suppose that the slaves have not a natural 
desire for freedom^ however erroneous may be their views of free- 
dom. There are certain natural impulses which belong to man, 
by the constitution of his being. No slavery can quench the as- 
pirings for liberty. In the language of the late Governor Mc- 
Dowell, one of your old fellow-citizens, at Lexington, and one of 
Virginia's noblest sons, " Sir, you may place the slave where you 
please ; you may dry up to your uttermost the fountains of his 
feelings, the springs of his thought ; you may close upon his mind 
every avenue of knowledge, and cloud it over with artificial night ; 
you may yoke him to your labours as the ox, which liveth only to 
work, and worketh only to live ; you may put him under any pro- 
cess, which, without destroying his value as a slave, will debase and 
crush him as a rational being ; you may do this, and the idea that 
he was born to be free will survive it all. It is allied to his hope 
of immortality — it is the ethereal part of his nature, which op- 
pression cannot rend. It is a torch lit up in his soul by the hand 
of the Deity, and never meant to be extinguished by the hand of 
man." 



120 



If the desire of the slaves for freedom be not as intelligent as it 
might be, the excuse lies partly in the want of opportunities to 
acquire higher knowledge, and partly in the bad example of idle- 
ness set by the free blacks and by the whites. And if the privi- 
lege of liberty were granted in society only to those who enter- 
tained entirely correct views of its nature, how many thousands of 
free citizens in this, and in all lands, ought to be reduced to sla- 
very ? It deserves to be remarked in all candour, and without 
disparagement, that there is danger of the prevalence, in a slave- 
holding community, of an unintelligent estimate of the value of 
future liberty to the slaves. 

II. It is a mistake to suppose that slaves possess no natural 
7'ights. Their present incapacity to " exercise beneficially these 
rights" does not destroy the title to them, but only suspends it. 
In the mean time, the slaves possess the correlative right of being 
made prepared for the equal privileges of the whole family of man. 

Your remarks that slavery secures to the slaves the right to 
labour in a better way " than it is secured to a more elevated race 
of labourers in Europe, under any of the systems which prevail 
among the 'civilized nations of the Old World," will hardly be re- 
ceived by autocrats and despots as a plea for reviving slavery on 
the continent. Indeed, the new Emperor, Alexander of Russia, is 
engaged, at this very time, in the great work of doing homage to 
Christian civilization by emancipating all the serfs of the empire. 

III. Another error consists in regarding the Africans as an in- 
ferior race, fit only to be slaves. Infidelity, as you are aware, has 
been active at the South in inducing the belief that the negro be- 
longs to an inferior, if not a distinct race. This doctrine is the 
only foundation of perpetual slavery.* It is alike hostile to eman- 
cipation and injurious to all efforts to elevate the negro to his true 
position as a fellow-man and an immortal. The slaves belong to 
Adam's race ; are by nature under the wrath and curse, even as 
others ; subjects of the same promises ; partakers of the same 
blessings in Jesus Christ, and heirs of the same eternal inheritance. 
How the last great day will dissipate unscriptural and inhuman 
prejudices against these children of the common brotherhood ! 

IV. It is an error to suppose that slavery is not responsible for 
suffering^ vice, and crime, prevalent under its dominion. Even 
were the slaves, if set free, to degenerate into a lower condition, 
slavery cannot escape from the responsibility of being an abettor 
of many injuries and evils. Much of the vice and crime of the 
manufacturing districts of England is undoubtedly owing to that 
system of labour, which thus becomes responsible for it. According 
to your theory, it would seem that no system of social or political 

* This defence of perpetual slavery is as old as Aristotle. That philosopher, 
wishing to establish some plausible plea for slavery, says, " The barbarians are of a 
different race from us, and were born to be slaves to the Greeks.''^ To use the language of 
chess, this doctrine is "Aristotle's opening." 



121 



despotism is accountable for the darkness and degradation of the 
people. It is sin that causes all the maladies of slavery ! But is 
there no connection between slavery and sin, as demonstrated by 
the experience of ages ? Is slavery a system so innocent as to 
cast off the obligation to answer for all the suffering and wickedness 
that have been perpetrated under its connivance ? Far be it from 
me to deny whatever good has been accomplished, in divine Provi- 
dence, through human bondage. God brings good out of evil ; but 
I cannot shut my eyes to the conviction that slavery is directly re- 
sponsible to God for a large amount of iniquity, both among the 
whites and the blacks, which, like a dark cloud, is rolling its way 
to the judgment. 

V. It is an error to suppose that the African slave-trade ought 
to he revived. Among all the popular errors of the day, this is the 
most mischievous and wicked. God denounces the traffic in human 
flesh and blood. It has the taint of murder. Our national legis- 
lation righteously classes it with piracy, and condemns its abettors 
to the gallows. And yet, in Conventions and Legislatures of a 
number of the slave-holding States, the revival of the African slave- 
trade meets with favour. This fact is an ominous proof of the 
demoralization of public sentiment, under the influence and opera- 
tion of a system of slavery. 

VI. Another error is, that slavery is a loermanent institution. 
Slavery in the United States must come to an end. Christianity 
is arraying the public opinion of the world against it. The reli- 
gion of Jesus Christ never has, and never can countenance the 
perpetuity of human bondage. The very soil of the planting 
States, w^hich is growing poorer and poorer every year, refuses to 
support slavery in the long run. Its impoverished fields are not 
often renovated, and the system must in time die the death of its 
own sluggish doom. Besides, the competition of free labour must 
add to the embarrassments of slavery. Even Africa herself may 
yet contend with the slave productions of America, in the market 
of the world. 

In short, slavery is compelled to extinction by the operation of 
natural laws in the providence of the everliving God — which laws 
act in concert wath the spirit and principles of his illuminating 
word. 

VII. Another popular delusion is, that slavery will always he a 
safe system. Thus far, the African race has exhibited extraordi- 
nary docility. Will this submission endure forever ? God grant 
that it may ! But who, that has a knowledge of human nature, 
does not tremble in view of future insurrections, under the newdy 
devised provocations of reviving the slave-trade, banishing the free 
blacks from the soil, and prohibiting emancipation ? Granting that 
insurrections w^ill be always suppressed in the end, yet what terrific 
scenes of slaughter may they enact on a small scale ; what terror 
will they carry into thousands of households ; and what hatred and 
enmity will they provoke between the two races ! The future of 



122 



slavery in America will present, in all probability, a dark and 
gloomy history, unless our beloved brethren exert themselves, in 
season, to arrest its progress, and to provide for its extinction. 

The prevalent sentiment in Virginia, in 1832, was thus uttered 
in the Legislature by Mr. Chandler^ of Norfolk: "It is admitted 
by all who have addressed this house, that slavery is a curse, and 
an increasing one. That it has been destructive to the lives of our 
citizens, history, with unerring truth, will record. That its future 
increase will create commotion, cannot be doubted." 

VIII. Another mistake is, that nothing can he done for the re- 
moval of slavery. Elevation is the grand demand of any, and 
every, scheme of emancipation. Can nothing more be done for 
the intellectual and moral elevation of the slaves? Much is, 
indeed, already in process of accomplishment ; but this work is left 
rather to individual Christian exertion, than to the benevolent ope- 
ration of public laws. The laws generally discourage education, 
and thus disown the necessity of enlarged measures for intellectual 
improvement. If it be said that education and slavery are incon- 
sistent with each other, the excuse is proof of the natural tendency 
of the system to degradation. Who will deny, however, that a 
great deal more might be done to prepare the slaves for freedom 
by private effort and by public legislation ? Can it be doubted that 
measures, favouring prospective emancipation, might be wisely 
introduced into many of the Slave States ? If there were, first, a 
willing mind, could there not be found, next, a practicable way ? 
Philip A. Bolling, of Buckingham, declared in the Virginia 
Legislature, in 1832, " The day is fast approaching, when those 
who oppose all action on this subject, and instead of aiding in 
devising some feasible plan for freeing their country from an 
acknowledged curse, cry ' impossible' to every plan suggested, will 
curse their perverseness and lament their folly." This is strong 
language. It comes from one of the public men of your own State, 
and is adapted to awaken thought. 

IX. The last popular error I shall specify, is, that none of the 
daves are now prepared for freedom. Whilst I am opposed to a 
scheme of immediate and universal emancipation, for reasons that 
jieed not be stated, I suppose that a large number of slaves are 
capable of rising at once to the responsibilities of freedom, under 
favouring circumstances, for example, in Liberia. Probably Nor- 
folk itself could furnish scores of such persons, or, to keep within 
bounds, one score. There must be thousands throughout the plan- 
tatiojis of the South, who are, in a good degree, prepared to act 
well their part in free and congenial communities. Such a repre- 
sentation honours the civilizing power of slavery, and has an im- 
portant bearing on schemes of emancipation. 

SECTION VII. — SCHEMES OF EMANCIPATION. 

I am now prepared to follow your example in offering some re- 
marks on " emancipation laws." 



123 



Allow me here to repeat my regret that you have persisted in 
discussing this subject. First, because it is foreign to the topic of 
"Emancipation and the Church;" secondly, because the discussion 
involves speculations rather than principles ; and thirdly, because 
no living man can, on the one side or the other, deliver very clear 
utterances, especially without more study than I, for one, have 
been able to give to the subject. Good, however, will result from 
an interchange of opinions. My chief motive in noticing this new 
part of your Rejoinder, on emancipation, is an unwillingness to 
allow your pro-slavery views to go forth in this Magazine without 
an answer. 

You are right, I think, in supposing that the best emancipation 
scheme practicable would embrace the following particulars : 

" (1.) A law prospective in its operation — say that all slaves 
born after a certain year, shall become free at the age of twenty- 
five. 

" (2.) Provision for the instruction of those to be emancipated in 
the rudiments of learning. 

" (3.) Provision for their transfer and comfortable settlement in 
Africa, when they become free." 

Your ^rs^ objection to this scheme is that, " in its practical work- 
ing, it would prove, to a very large extent, a t7rinsportation, and 
not an emancipation law." Let us look at this objection. 

1. Many owners of slaves would go with them into other States, 
and thus no injury would be inflicted upon the slaves, whilst the 
area of freedom behind them would be enlarged. 

2. Many masters would make diligent and earnest efforts to pre- 
pare their slaves for freedom, on their plantations, even if other 
masters sold their slaves for transportation. 

3. If some, or many, of the masters were to sell their slaves, it 
would be doing no more than is done in Virginia, at the present 
time. The number of Virginia slaves transported annually into 
other States, has been estimated as high as fifty thousand. 

4. A compensation clause might be attached to the plan we are 
considering, with a prohibition against transportation. 

5. The objection is founded upon the supposition that only some 
of the States adopted the emancipation scheme. The objection 
would also be diminished in force, in proportion to the number of 
States adopting the scheme, because the supply of slaves may be- 
come greater than the demand. 

6. Some evils, necessarily attendant upon general schemes of 
emancipation, are more than counterbalanced by the greater good 
accomplished. If Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, 
Tennessee, and Missouri, were to adopt a scheme of prospective 
emancipation,* the general advantage to those States, in a social, 
moral, intellectual, and economical point of view, would more than 
counterbalance the inherent and minor evils incident to the scheme. 



* Ought not such a scheme to begiii with these States ? 



124 



The addition of six new States to the area of freedom would pro- 
bably outweigh all the trials incident to the transition period. 

An emancipation scheme, similar to that propounded, was tested 
in the Northern States, where it succeeded well ; and you could 
not have appealed to a better illustration of its wisdom. The num- 
ber of slaves transported could not have been very great, because 
the whole number in New England, New York, New Jersey, and 
Pennsylvania, was only about 40,000 in the year 1790, when these 
schemes were generally commenced, and the number of Africans 
in those States was more than double at the next census. 

On the whole, a prospective emancipation scheme, with or with- 
out a compensation or prohibitory clause, would, in the States 
named, do more, in the end, in behalf of the African race and the 
cause of freedom, than the inactive policy of doing nothing. 

Objection 2d. You object to the plan " on the ground that the 
slave race cannot be prepared for freedom by any short course of 
education, such as that proposed," 

1. Suppose that the Legislature of Virginia should enact that all 
slaves born after 1870, shall become free at the age of twenty-five. 
The course of education would be precisely as long as the process 
of nature allows. It would embrace the whole of the training period 
of an entire generation ; and with the intellectual and moral re- 
sources already in possession of the African race in Virginia, a 
general and faithful effort to elevate the young would result, under 
God, in a substantial advancement of condition, auguring well for 
freedom. 

2. Your own experiment with the two slaves is just in point. It 
shows how much can be done, on a small scale, and, if so, on a 
larger scale. These slaves were taught to read and write ; they 
were fitted for freedom at the age of thirty-two ; and they were 
then set free, as "good colonists for Liberia." Although they did 
not ultimately go to Liberia, perhaps their addition " to the number 
of free negroes in Virginia," was esteemed by them a higher 
benefit than it seems to you. They were, at any rate, qualified for 
freedom in Liberia. 

3. To the idea that all the emancipated slaves ought to be "com- 
pelled to go to Liberia," you present three difiiculties. (1.) " It 
is vain to expect to make good citizens for Liberia, by sending 
them there against their will, like convicts to a penal colony." I 
reply, that Liberia is becoming to the African race more and more 
an object of desire ; that there is no more compulsion in the case 
than their own best interests demands, as persons who, up to that 
period, are in the state of minors ; that the prospect of liberty in 
Liberia is very different from that of penal labour and suffering by 
convicts ; and that, if your remark be true, that it is vain to 
expect to make " good citizens for Liberia, by sending them against 
their will," is it not equally vain to expect to make good citizens 
of slaves by keeping them in slavery "against their will?" (2.) 



125 



You say that we deceive ourselves in speaking of Africa as " their 
native country," "their home." I reply tliat the race-mark in- 
delibly identifies the slaves with xifrica ; that their own traditions 
connect them with their fatherland ; that the decisions of the 
United States Supreme Court deny them to be "citizens" of this 
country ; and that their own affections are becoming stronger and 
stronger in favour of returning to Africa, as their minds become 
enlightened. (3.) Another obstacle to " compulsory expatriation," 
in your judgment, is, that it would " sunder ties both of family and 
affection." I reply, not necessarily either the one or the other, as 
a general rule. On the supposition of a compensation law, which 
is the true principle, there would be no sundering of family ties ; 
and as to ties of affection for their masters or friends left behind, 
every emigrant to our Western States expects to bear them. Be- 
sides, instead of a " compulsory expatriation," it would be virtually 
a voluntary return to the land of their fathers. 

Objection 3d. Your third objection to the proposed gradual 
emancipation scheme is, that you "do not see the least prospect of 
Liberia being able to do the part assigned to it in this plan for a 
long time to come." This is the only objection of any real weight. 

SECTION VIII. — LIBERIAN COLONIZATION. 

You will agree with me, if I mistake not, in three particulars : 

1. African Colonization is a scheme, founded in wise and far- 
reaching views of African character and destiny. The coloured 
race can never attain to social and political elevation in the United 
States. The experience of the past is a demonstration against the 
continuance of the two races in this country on terms favourable 
to the negroes ; and there is reason to believe that the future will 
be a period of increased disadvantage and hardship. The coloni- 
zation of the coloured people in Africa is, therefore, in its concep- 
tion, a scheme of profound wisdom and true benevolence. 

2. You will also agree with me in the opinion that the measures 
for Liberian Colonization may be indefinitely extended. Territory, 
larger than the Atlantic slope, may be procured in the interior of 
Africa ; money enough may be obtained from the sale of the public 
lands, or from other national resources ; vessels are already on hand 
to meet the demands of the largest transportation ; and emigrants, 
of a hopeful character, and in large numbers, may be expected to 
present themselves, at the indicated time, in the providence of God. 
There are no limits to the plan of Liberian Colonization. Your 
own faith in its ultimate capabilities seems to be shaded with doubt, 
only in reference to the question of time. 

3. Further. You will agree with me in the opinion that much 
more might he done, at once, in the actual working of the Liberian 
scheme. Among the coloured population in this country are large 



126 



numbers, both bond and free, who are superior to the average class 
of emigrants already sent out, 

SECTION IX. — WHICH CLASS SHOULD BE SENT FIRST, THE FREE, OR 

THE SLAVES? 

In your judgment, we ought " to adhere to the course marked 
out by the founders of the Colonization Society, and attend first to 
the free people of colour ; and only after our work here has been 
done, ought we to think of resorting to colonization as an adjunct 
to emancipation." 

1. The discussion of this issue is outside even of the new theme ; 
because the plan of emancipation, proposed by yourself, assumes 
the colonization of the slaves as one of its main features. I submit 
that it is not in order to deny your own admissions. 

2. The colonization of slaves, when set free, is precisely in ac- 
cordance with the constitution of the American Colonization So- 
ciety. And the Society has been acting upon this principle from 
the beginning. The majority of emigrants belong to the class that 
were once slaves, and who have been made free with the object of 
removal to Africa, as colonists. 

3. I see no reason why the sympathy of philanthropy should be 
first concentrated upon the free blacks. This class of our popula- 
tion are, indeed, entitled to our warm interest and our Christian 
exertions to promote their welfare; but why to an exclusive and 
partial benevolence ? If you reply, as you do, because the con- 
dition of the free people of colour is worse than that of our slaves," 
then I beg leave to call in question the statement, and to invalidate 
it, in part, by your own declaration, that at least fifty thousand of 
the free blacks are more intelligent and better prepared for coloni- 
zation than can be found among the slaves. When the exigency 
of the argument requires you to sustain slavery, you depreciate the 
free blacks and make them "lower than the slaves;" but when 
colonization demands the best quality of emigrants, then you de- 
preciate the slaves and point to "fifty thousand" free blacks, who 
are superior to slaves. 

4. I might assign many reasons why, if Liberian colonization be 
a benevolent scheme, the race in slavery ought not to be excluded 
from its benefits. But, this point being assumed, as I have stated, 
an axiom of our problem, it is unnecessary to establish it by argu- 
ment. 

5. Let us compromise this issue on a principle of Christian 
equity, viz. : simultaneous efforts should be made to colonize the 
blacks who are already free, and those who may be set free for that 
purpose. You will not deny that there are hundreds and thousands 
of Christian slaves who, if emancipated, would make good citizens 
of Liberia. Why, then, should the social and political elevation of 
these men be postponed, and the good they might do in Africa be 



127 



lost, simply because there are free people of colour in the land, 
who are also proper subjects of colonization ? 

SECTION X. — WHAT THE COLONIZATION SOCIETY HAS DONE. 

Before the establishment of the Republic of Liberia, the future 
of the African race, in this country, was dreary and almost without 
hope. The mind of the philanthropist had no resting-place for its 
anxious thoughts ; the pious slave-holder lived in faith, without the 
suggestion of any effectual remedy ; and the negro race in America 
seemed doomed to labour for generations, and then sink away or 
perish. In God's good time, a Republic springs up in the Eastern 
world ! It is an African Republic; and composed mainly of those 
who once were slaves in America. What an event in the history of 
civilization ! Even in this last half century of wonders, it stands 
out in the greatness of moral and political pre-eminence. 

For some account of the results of African Colonization, I 
refer you to my Address at the opening of the Ashmun Institute, 
entitled God glorified by Africa." It is sufficient here to 
say that the Liberian Republic, with its institutions of freedom, 
contains about 10,000 emigrants from America, of whom 6000 
were once Southern slaves. Its schools, academies, and churches ; 
its growing commerce, improving agriculture, and intelligent legis- 
lation ; its favourable location. Protestantism, and Anglo-Saxon 
speech : all conspire to demonstrate the truth of the principles on 
which it was founded, and to develope a national prosperity rarely 
equalled in the history of colonization. 

In short, the Liberian Republic is a good loorh^ well done. Laus 
Deo! 

SECTION XI. — WHAT MAY BE REASONABLY EXPECTED OF LIBERIA. 

Let US be hopeful. Cheer up. Brother Armstrong ! Ethiopia is 
yet to stretch out her hands unto God. An eminent Southern 
divine has well said, "I acknowledge the duty, which rests upon all, 
to hope great things and attempt great things, and look with holy 
anxiety at the signs of the times." 

I. Let us hope great things. " Hope, that is seen, is not hope ;" 
and I may add, without irreverence, hope, that will not see, is not 
hope. Your views about the permanence of slavery prevent the 
access to your mind of large hopes from the Liberian scheme. In 
your Letters and Rejoinders, you several times express doubt whe- 
ther slavery in the United States is ever to end ! Nor does it 
seem to you very desirable that it should end. 

II. The people of God should attempt great things for the 
African race. Prosperity has attended African colonization thus 
far ; and under circumstances to stimulate to more active and ex- 
tended efforts. 



128 



1. Assimilation. The great obstacle is, as jou state, " the diffi- 
culty in assimilating such an immigration as we are able to send" 
to Liberia. 

The fact of an " indiscriminate immigration," composed chiefly 
of slaves, accomplishing so much in Liberia, is very encouraging in 
regard to the possibility of success on a larger scale. 

The emigrants to be sent out by the scheme of emancipation 
under review, would be of a higher character than the class already 
there. One of the features of this plan involves " provision for the 
instruction of those to be emancipated in the rudiments of learn- 
ing." Education is, under God, a mighty elevator. The question, 
whether a people shall be raised up in the scale of intelligence or 
be allowed to remain unlettered and in gross ignorance, decides 
the destiny of nations. It will certainly decide the destiny of 
African colonization. The proposed plan contemplates a long in- 
terval of preparation, an interval of thirty -seven years^ during 
which time a new generation is to come forward under a full sys- 
tem of Christian appliances." A very different class of emi- 
grants will, therefore, be made ready for colonization. Nor is it 
chimerical to suppose that great elevation of character would 
attend measures for the instruction of the young slaves, under the 
kindly intercourse, supervision, and example of one and a quarter 
millions of white members of the Church of Christ, and fifteen 
thousand ministers of the Gospel.* These emigrants, thus prepared 
for freedom, would be prepared for assimilation. 

The difficulty of foreign immigration to this country is in its 
diversity and irreligion. Speaking foreign tongues, trained to dif- 
ferent habits and customs, debased by Roman superstition, or cor- 
rupted by German infidelity, the mass of our immigrants are far 
more difficult to fuse into our existing population than would be 
the Africans into their own race at Liberia. In the case of colo- 
nization in Liberia, the population would be homogeneous, of a 
more intelligent order than the original population, and under the 
influences of the Christian religion. 

African character is improving in Liberia. Instead of deteriora- 
ting, as when in contact with the white race, it is now gaining ad- 
miration in the political world. What has been wanting to raise 
the negro character is education, the habit of self-reliance, and a 
fair opportunity for development on a field of its own, unhindered 
by contact with the white race. An illustration of the elevating 
power of a removal to a congenial field, is seen in the case of thou- 
sands of impoverished whites in the slaveholding States. This 
class, doomed to poverty, and often to degradation, by the law of 
slavery, rise to influence, wealth, and importance, when they emi- 

* This is the best estimate I can make of the number of white communicants and 
ministers in the Southern churches. 



129 



grate to new States. A similar influence will bless the negro race, 
when separated from contaminating influences, and disciplined to 
bear its part among the governments of the world. 

In Liberia, new communities would be formed, and settlements 
established in different parts of the extending republic, to meet the 
demands of emigration. "Assimilation" is easier under circum- 
stances of diffusion than of aggregation. As, in our own country, the 
facility of acquiring land in the new Territories and States, pro- 
motes the welfare of the emigrants, and fixes them in homes 
comparatively remote from cities and overgrown districts, so the 
Liberian scheme proposes to establish its large accessions of emi- 
grants in independent and separate communities, increasing in 
number with the demand for enlargement. 

2. The " deep-rooted distrust of the capacity of their own people 
for safely conducting the affairs of government" need give a friend 
of colonization no concern whatever. The race in this country has 
never had the opportunity of proving its capacity to take charge 
of public interests. The only experiment hitherto made has been 
successful. The government of Liberia is administered with as 
much skill as that of most of the States in our Union, and the 
republic is growling in importance among the nations of the earth. 
The Africans will learn soon enough to put confidence in Liberia, 
and to prefer their own administration to that of any other people 
in America. 

3. Your " rule of three" will hardly work in reference to the 
developments of God's providence. "If now it has taken thirty- 
four years to place a colony of ten thousand on the coast of Africa, 
when can we reasonably calculate that our work will be done" with 
hundreds of thousands ? Verily, by the Armstrong rule, no cal- 
culation would be "reasonable." Virginia herself could by ciphered 
out of her present civilization and glory, by writing down, for the 
basis of t^he problem, the original Jamestown efforts at colonization. 
The "rule of three," irrelevant as it has always been, will become 
less and less geometrical, "as ye see the day approaching." How 
will it work when " nations are born in a day?" 

It must be admitted that, although the rule is unfair in such a 
discussion, no human sagacity can scan the problem of African co- 
lonization. It is certain, however, that many of our wisest men 
regard colonization as the most hopeful adjunct to emancipation. On 
the question of time, there is room for difference of opinion ; and 
so there is, indeed, on all points. The late Dr. Alexander, than 
whom no man stood higher in Virginia for wisdom and far-reach- 
ing views, thus sums up his views of the capacity of Liberia to re- 
ceive the coloured race of America : " If Liberia should continue to 
flourish and increase, it is not so improhahle, as many suppose, that 
the greater part of the African race, now in this country, will, in 
the inscrutable dispensations of Providence, be restored to the 

9 



130 



country of their fathers." Some of our most distinguished political 
characters have expressed the same opinion.* 

There are various providential aspects, which encourage large 
expectations from Liberian colonization, in its connection with the 
removal of American slavery, and which serve to show that an 
emancipation movement, of some kind, cannot be far off. 

III. Besides hoping great things, and attempting great things, 
we should "look with holy anxiety at the signs of the times." 
Providence is a quickening instructor. 

1. One of the signs of the times is, the general sentiment of the 
civilized ivorld in favour of measures of emancipation. Slavery 
has existed in the United States for two centuries, during which 
period it has been overruled, in many ways, for great good to the 
shaves. But can it long survive the pressure of public sentiment at 
home and abroad ? When all Christian and civilized nations are 
opposed to its continuance, must it not, before long, adopt some 
active measures tending to its abolition ? 

2. Another sign of the times is, the demonstration of African 
capability^ made by the Kepublic of Liberia. The light of this 
Republic spreads far into the future. It illuminates the vista of 
distant years, and cheers the heart of philanthropy with the sight 
of a great and rising nation. The moral power of the successful 
enterprise on the shores of Africa, is like the voice of God speak- 
ing to the children of Israel to "go forward." 

3. The exploration of Africa^ just at this period of her history, 
is another cheering sign for colonization. Preparations for a great 
work are going on for that dark continent. Whatever developes 
Africa's resources, is a token of good to her descendants every- 
where. Elevate the continent, and the race is free. These explo- 
rations will serve, in part, to satisfy the public mind in reference 
to the healthfulness and fertility of the country, back from the sea, 
and its adaptation to all the purposes of colonization. 

4. Another sign of approaching crisis, favourable to some im- 
portant results, is in the South itself. After a long period of 
repose, it presents tokens of internal divisions, of excitement, and 
of extreme measures. The revival of the African slave-trade, 
which is a popular plan in six States, bids defiance to God and 
nations. The preparations, commenced in Maryland and elsewhere, 
to drive out the free blacks or reduce them to slavery ; the move- 
ment to prohibit emancipation by legislative enactment ; the laws 
against the instruction of the slaves ; all the recent political ad- 

An enlightened advocate of colonization, as an adjunct to emancipation, need not 
maintain that the ivhoh African race in this country must go to Liberia. Many of 
them will probably remain behind in this country, to struggle with adversity, and 
perhaps at last to die away. Dr. Alexander's language goes as far as is necessary to 
meet the case. " The greater part of the African race" will probably be restored to 
Africa. 



131 



varices of slavery, incliiding the judicial decision denying the rights 
of citizenship to free blacks, and carrying slavery into the national 
territories ; and especially the lowering of the tone of public senti- 
ment on the ^Yhole subject of slavery and emancipation, to "which 
even ministers have contributed : all this has the appearance of an 
impending crisis, and points to some great result in Divine Provi- 
dence, in spite of all the opposition of man ; yea, and by means 
of it ! 

5. The times magnify QoloJiization as an instrument of civiliza- 
tion. Behold the new States on the shores of the Pacific, and the 
rising kingdoms in Australia. Behold the millions who have peo- 
pled our own Western States. Colonization has never before dis- 
played such power, or won triumphs so extensive and rapid. Nor 
has the black man ever attained such dignity as by emigrating to 
Africa. Colonization is . one of the selected agencies of God to 
promote the civilization of the human race. 

6. It also seems clear that God had some special pur i^ose of grace 
and goodness to accomplish with the slave race, on a large scale. 
The Africans have been torn from their homes, brouo-ht to a land 
of liberty and religion, civilized and elevated here, to a good degree, 
and yet, v/hen set free in the land, disowned as citizens, and sub- 
jected to a social and political condition, so disparaging as to pre- 
clude the hope of fulfilling their mission in America. Everything 
points to Africa as the field of their highest cultivation and useful- 
ness. 

7. The concurring providences of God throughout the earth are 
harbingers of the times of renovation and of millennial glory. The 
fulfilment of prophecy is at hand. Progress and revolution mark 
the age. The end is not distant, when " He, whose right it is, 
shall reign;" and "Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands unto 
God." 

With siorns like these flashina; across the heavens, it is no time 
for the watchers of the African sky to sleep at their observatories; 
much less, if they are awake, is it a time to doubt. Providence 
calls upon the friends of the race to hope great things, and to 
attempt great things. It points to Liberian Colonization as the 
most hopeful scheme ever devised for the elevation of Africa's de- 
graded children, and for their emancipation from the long American 
bondage. Work, and see ! Trust, and try ! 

SECTION XII. — EFFECTS OF ENTERTAINIXQ THIS EMANCIPATION 

SCHEME. 

In your judgment, the discussion of emancipation is calculated 
to "do harm." W^hy, then, did my good brother introduce the 
question, and in a form that seemed to demand an answer ? The 
whole discussion is evidently foreign from the original issues be- 
tween us, as most readers readily see. 



132 



For myself, I do not believe, that a calm and Christian discus- 
sion of this vast social and political question will do any injury at 
all. It needs investigation. It requires it before God and man. 
The interests of the white race and of the black race, the welfare 
of the present and succeeding generations, conscience, political 
economy, safety, the public opinion of the civilized world, religion, 
Providence, — all invite serious attention to the question of emanci- 
pation. And why should a rational discussion interfere v.'ith "the 
religious instruction and gradual elevation of the African race ?" 
Its natural effect, one would think, would be to stimulate effort 
in this very direction, at least with Christian and sober-minded 
people. 

The Free States have, unquestionably, been remiss in their du- 
ties to the free coloured population. I confess, with shame, this 
neglect and injustice. Human nature is the same everywhere. 
The free blacks have, however, .many privileges. They have access 
to public schools ; they have churches in abundance ; and if they 
could enjoy social equality, they would long ago have been " assi- 
milated" in our communities. You ask, "Are you colonizing them 
in Africa ?" I reply, that hitherto they have refused to go, not- 
withstanding the most earnest and persevering expostulations. The 
same class of fanatics who have urged immediate and universal 
emancipation at the South, have decried colonization at the North, 
and successfully resisted its claims among the free people of colour. 
There are evidences that a change of opinion is now silently mak- 
ing progress among them in favour of colonization. May God 
help us to do more in their behalf, and to roll away the reproach, 
of which you faithfully remind us, and for doing which I give you 
my thanks. 

SECTION XIII. — THE WORK AND THE WAY. 

There is no difference of opinion between us about the work and 
the way, although I believe that we ought to keep the end in view, 
as well as apply the means. Why work in the dark ? The great 
obligation is the improvement of the slaves, their intellectual and 
moral elevation. The slaves, in my judgment, and, I suppose, in 
yours, ought to be taught the rudiments of learning. Our mission- 
aries to the heathen place Christian schools among the effective 
instrumentalities of promoting religion and every good result. 
What can be gained by keeping the slaves in ignorance, it is diffi- 
cult to conjecture. Ought not the Bible to be placed in their 
hands, in order that they may "search the Scriptures" and possess 
the opportunity of a more complete improvement of their rational 
powers ? A committee, in their report to the Synod of South 
Carolina and Georgia, in 1833, state : " The proportion that read 
is infinitely small ; and the Bible, so far as they can read it for 



133 



themselves, is, to all intents, a sealed book." Since 1833, progress 
may have been made in the instruction of the slaves in the rudi- 
ments of knowledge. And yet, in view of the fact that several of 
the States, including Virginia, have, within this period, passed 
stringent laws prohibiting the slaves from being taught to read, it 
is difficult to ascertain the nature and extent of this progress, if 
indeed there be any. In some States, I fear there has been an in- 
terposition that leads to retrogradation. 

You are right in saying that the most effectual way of promoting 
emancipation is "through the agency of a gradually ameliorating 
slavery, the amelioration taking place as the slaves are prepared 
to profit by it." What strikes a stranger, at the present time, is 
that the law^s have, of late years, become more harsh, especially in 
the matter of instruction, than ever before. An " amelioratins; 
slavery" would naturally extend the educational and general privi- 
leges of the slaves. Has there ever been any public legislative 
action having in view the enlightenment of the slaves ? Might not 
Christian citizens accomplish much more in ameliorating the code, 
by enlarging the privileges of the slaves in conformity with the re- 
commendations of Mr. Nott? 

The remedial suggestions of Mr. Nott, understood to be received 
with favour by a number of gentlemen at the South, are of much 
value. If generally adopted, the work of amelioration w^ould be 
carried forward w4th an increase of power altogether unknown in 
the annals of slave civilization. Among his admirable suggestions, 
which are generally elaborated with much good sense, are the fol- 
lowing : " There may be supposed admissible in the progress of 
amelioration, first, some extension of franchises to those remaining 
slaves ; and secondly, an opportunity of full emancipation to such 
as may choose it : thus giving to all some share in providing for 
their social well-being, and opening the path for individual progress 
and advancement." 

An ameliorating system is the only, and the safest, way to eman- 
cipation ; and in such a system, religious and moral instruction is 
the strongest element. The plan of emancipation we have been 
considering could have no prospect of a successful issue, unless, 
in the course of thirty years, a great advance could be made, 
under God, in the intellectual and social condition of the slaves. 
The intermediate work is Christian elevation; after that, emanci- 
pation. 

I am far from undervaluing the general tendency of Southern 
civilization towards the improvement of the slaves. Great credit 
belongs to those of our self-denying brethren who have made special 
efforts in their own households and on neighbouring plantations. 
Let this work go on, and thousands of slaves will be prepared for 
freedom, in Liberia, in the course of another generation. This is 
the work, and this is the way I 



134 



SECTION XIV. — THE CHURCH AND ADVISORY TESTIMONY. 

After this long digression, of your own seeking, I return to the 
original topic of the relation of the Church to emancipation. The 
Church has a right to enjoin the performance of all the relative 
duties specified in the Scriptures, a^d to give general counsel^ or 
testimony, in regard to the termination of the relation itself, as a 
moral and lawful end. 

Why a right to give counsel ? Because, as I have attempted to 
show, the relation being abnormal and exceptional, its ultimate dis- 
solution is fairly inferred, as a moral duty, from the general spirit 
and principles of the word of God. So far as the dissolution of 
the relation requires the action of the State, the Church has no 
right to meddle with it in any form, either as to the plan, or the 
time. The Church has simply the right to advise and urge her 
members to prepare their slaves for freedom, as soon as Providence 
shall open the way for it. 

Why may not the Church enjoin emancipation? Because slave- 
holding being right or wrong, according to circumstances, the 
Church can neither give a specific rule of permanent and univer- 
sal obligation, nor can it take cognizance of the circumstances of 
each particular case, which must be adjudicated by the mind and 
conscience of each individual under his responsibility to God. 

The Church, therefore, whilst it cannot prescribe political mea- 
sures of emancipation, or the time of emancipation, has a perfect 
right to say to its members, as our General Assembly did, in 
1818 : 

"We earnestly exhort them to contimie, and, if posslhle, to increase 
their exertions to effect a total abolition of slavery. We exhort them to 
suffer no greater delay to take place in this most interestiug concern, than 
a regard to the public welfare truly and indispensably demands/' 

"And we, at the same time, exhort others to forbear harsh censures, 
and uncharitable reflections on their brethren, who unhappily live among 
slaves, whom they cannot immediately set free; but who are really icsing 
all of their inflacnce and all their endeavours to bring them into a state 
of freedom, as suon as a door for it can be safely opened.'^ 

Or, as the Synod of Virginia declared in 1802 : 

" We consider it the indispensable duty of all who hold slaves to pre- 
pare, by a suitable education, the young among them for a state of free- 
dom, and to liberate them as soon as they shcdl appear to be duly quali- 
fied for that high privileged 

In thus maintaining the right of the Church to give advisory tes- 
timony, there is scarcely need to add, that the Church is bound to 
proceed with the wisdom which should ever characterize a court 
of the Lord Jesus Christ. 



135 



SECTION XV. — THE THIRD LETTER. HISTORY OP AKTI-SLAVERT 

OPINIONS. 

1. I do not conceive that my third letter was based upon the 
slightest misapprehension. The whole strain of Bishop Hopkins's 
apology for slavery implies, like your own, that the institution may 
lawfully exist among a people, forever, without any concern. This 
I do not believe ; and this the Christian Church has not believed, 
either in earlier or later times. I protest against such doctrine, in 
however guarded language it may be expressed or concealed. 

In the time of Chrysostom, who flourished after Constantino, 
about A.D. 400, emancipation was encouraged throughout the Em- 
pire ; more so than my.brother Armstrong seems to encourage it 
now, in the interval of fourteen centuries. There is no reason to 
infer from Chrysostom's fanciful interpretation of 1 Cor. 7 : 21, 
that he was an advocate of the perpetuity of slavery. In some re- 
spects, that distant age was in advance of our own. 

2. You think tliat in two instances I confound things that differ. 
(1.) But I did not understand you as saying that the Christian 
anti-slavery philanthropists of England were infidels, but simply 
that they acted quoad hoc on infidel principles. I proved that their 
principles were not those of infidelity ; that such an idea was pre- 
posterous.* (2.) Nor did I confound slaveholding with the Afri- 
can slave-trade. The paragraphs from Mr. Bancroft's history em- 
braced both subjects, so that one could not be well separated from 
the other. Besides, the traffic and the system sustain a close re- 
lation to each other. The abettors of perpetual slavery are always 
prone to defend the slave-trade, as is lamentably witnessed at the 
present time, in the extreme South. 

SECTION XVI. — CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

On reviewing our respective positions on this interesting ques- 
tion, I am confirmed in the correctness of those with which I set 
out, viz. : that " slaveholding is right or wrong according to cir- 
cumstances ;" that the General Assembly had a right to exhort 
the members of the Church to prepare their slaves for freedom 
whenever Providence should open the door for it ; that the history 
of anti-slavery opinions shows that the Church has never regarded 
slavery as an institution to be perpetuated ; that it is wise for us, 
as citizens^ to examine the question of emancipation in all its bear- 
ings ; and that the border States, if no others, might advantageously 
commence the work speedily, on the plan of a prospective scheme, 
with Liberian colonization as its adjunct. 

HoBBES, one of the leaders of infidelity, maintained that every man being by 
nature at war with every man, the one has a perpetual right to reduce the other to 
servitude, when he can accomplish the end. 



136 



On the other hand, if I do not misunderstand you, you have taken 
the following positions : 1. " Slaveholding is not a sin in the sight 
of God." 2. The Church has no right even to advise her members 
to elevate their slaves with a view to their freedom, and that the 
testimonies of the General Assembly, down to 1845, were wrong, 
and ought never to have been uttered. 3. Slaveholding has always 
existed in the Church without any reproach, from the earliest times, 
until Christian philanthropy, adopting the principles of Infidelity, 
has lately agitated the matter. 4. It is expedient to do nothing 
in the way of emancipation at present, zj, indeed, the slaves are 
ever to be free; and the South had better not send any more slaves 
to Liberia until the North has sent its free blacks. 

By the expression of these sentiments, I fear that, without in- 
tending it, you have lowered the tone of public sentiment wherever 
your influence extends, and have impaired the obligations of con- 
scientious Christians on this great subject. John Randolph declared 
in Congress, " Sir, I envy not the heart nor the head of that man 
from the North, who rises here to defend slavery from principle." 
This remark has no direct application, of course, to yourself; but 
many readers, I fear, will claim, in your behalf, the credit of doing 
the very thing that John Randolph denounced. 

I agree with you about the evils of the course of the fanatical 
abolitionists ; and not any more than yourself do I desire to unite 
my honour ^tvith their assembly.* 

I stand upon the good old ground, occupied by the Presbyterian 
Church from time immemorial. Believing it to be scriptural ground, 
I have endeavoured to defend it ; and shall, by God's grace, con- 
tinue to defend it on all fit occasions, against extreme views either 
at the North or at the South. I further believe that my beloved 
brethren at the South occupy, in the main, the same conservative 
position, — a position which has enabled our Church to maintain her 
scriptural character and her integrity. I do not expect that my 
brethren, either at the North or South, will agree with me in all 
the side issues about plans of emancipation, which you have thrown 
into the argument without any logical authority, and to which I 
have replied according to the best light given me. 

Praying for spiritual blessings upon Africa and her descendants, 
and that the cause of truth, liberty, and righteousness may prevail 
from shore to shore, 

I am yours fraternally, 

C. Van Rensselaer. 

* Notwithstanding Dr. Armstrong's strong condemnation of the aboh"tionists, he 
practically, but nnintentionally, adopts two of their leading principles. 1. He dis- 
courages, at least for a long period, the emancipation of slaves, with a view of send- 
ing them to Liberia. So far as this generation is concerned, Dr. Armstrong and 
the abolitionists are, on this point, at unity. 2. He maintains that Africa ought not 
to be regarded as the country and home of the coloured race ; but that America is as 
much their home as it is his or mine. This is a favourite and fundamental principle 
of the abolitionists, from which they argue emancipation upon the soil. 



137 



NOTE. DR. BAXTER ON SLAVERY. 

Since writing the foregoing Article, a friend has forwarded to the Pres- 
byterian Historical Society, Dr. Baxter's pamphlet on Slavery. I have 
read, with great interest and satisfaction, this remarkable production of 
my revered theological instructor. It breathes the spirit of his great 
soul. 

1. The principles of Dr. Baxter's pamphlet are not at all inconsistent with 
the Assembly's testimony of 1818, which he had a share in preparing and 
adopting. The general views are coincident with those of that immortal 
document, with such difference only as was naturally to be expected in 
looking at the subject from a different stand-point. 

2. In the statement of the doctrine of slavery, Dr. Baxter fully agrees 
with me, as will be seen by the following quotations from his pamphlet : 

" The relation of the master is lawful, as long as the circumstances of 
the case make slavery necessary." p. 5. 

There is no consistent ground of opposing abolition, without asserting 
that the relation of master is right or wrong according to cii-cumstances, 
and that the examination of our circumstances is necessary to ascertain 
whether or not it be consistent with our duty." pp. 9, 10. 

^'It therefore appears plain, that the Apostle determines the relation of 
master to be a lawful relation. [Here Dr. Armstrong would have stopped, 
but Dr. Baxter adds.] I only mean that slavery is lawful, whilst neces- 
sary ; or that it is lawful to hold slaves, whilst this is the best thing that 
can he done for them." p. 15. 

" I believe that the true ground of Scripture, and of sound philosophy, 
as to this subject, is, that slavery is lawful in the sight of Heaven, whilst 
the character of the slave makes it necessary.'' p. 23. 

Dr. Armstrong will see that my doctrine of circumstances, and nothing 
else, was in the mind of Dr. Baxter. This was the Assembly's doctrine 
of 1818. Dr. Baxter was no wiser in 1836, " eighteen years afterwards," 
because he was scripturally wise in 1818. I have a firmer persuasion 
than ever, that the great mass of my brethren at the South agree with Dr. 
Baxter, and not with Dr. Armstrong. 

3. Dr. Baxter does not hesitate to speak out, like a man and a Chris- 
tian, against the idea of the perpetuity of slavery. 

"For my part, I do not believe that the system of slavery will or can 
be perpetual in this country." p. 16. 

" Christianity in its future progress through the world, with greater 
power than has heretofore been witnessed, I have no doubt will banish 
slavery from the face of the whole earth." p. 17. 

" The application of Christian principles to both master and servant, 
will hasten the day of general emancipation." p. 23. 

Dr. Baxter uses no ifs, like a man afraid of his shadow, but boldly 
declares the common conviction of the Christian, and even political, world 
in regard to the desirableness and certainty of ultimate emancipation. 

4. Dr. Baxter's pamphlet is specially directed against the abolition doc- 
trine of immediate emancipation; and his object is to show that slavery 
can only be abolished by preparing the slaves for freedom under the in- 
fluences of Christianity. I find nothing in the pamphlet on the question 
of Church testimony. There is no doubt, in my own mind, that he ad- 
hered to his views of 1818, on this, as on other points. Grod bless his 
memory and example ! " Being dead, he yet speaketh." 

10 



INDEX. 



THREE LETTERS TO A CONSERVATIVE. 

Dr. Armstrong's First Letter. On the Proper Statement of the Scriptural 

Doctrine of Slavery, 3 

Dr. Armstrong's Second Letter. On Emancipation and the Church, . 8 
Dr. Armstrong's Thi?'d Letter. On the Historical View of Anti-Slavery 

Opinions, ............ 14 



THREE CONSERVATIVE REPLIES. 

Dr. Van Rensselaer's First Reply. On the Proper Statement of the Scrip- 

tural Doctrine of Slavery, 23 

Dr. Van Rensselaer's Second Reply. On Emancipation and the Church, 37 
Dr. Van Rensselaer's Third Reply. On the Historical Argument for Sla- 
very, , 53 



REJOINDERS. 

Dr. Armstrong's First Rejoinder. On the Proper Statement of the Scrip- 
tural Doctrine of Slavery, 67 

Dr. Armstrong's Second Rejoinder. On Emancipation and the Church, 

Schemes of Emancipation, Colonization, &c. &c., . . . .81 

REPLIES TO REJOINDERS, 

Dr. Van Rensselaer's First Reply to the First Rejoinder. On the Proper 

Statement of the Scriptural Doctrine of Slavery, . . . . .99 

Dr. Van Rensselaer's Second Reply. On Emancipation and the Church, 

Schemes of Emancipation, Colonization, &c., 112 



37th Congress, ) HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. j Report 
2d Session. ] \ No. 148. 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 

[To accompany bill H. E. No. 576.] 



July 16, 1862, — Ordered to be printed. 



Mr. Albert S. White, from the select committee on emancipation, 

made the following 

REPORT. 

The select committee appointed in pursuance of the resolution of 
April 7, 1862, to wit: 

'^Besolved, That a select committee, to consist of nine members, be 
appointed to inquire and report to this House, at as early a day as 
practicable, whether any plan can be proposed and recommended for 
the gradual emancipation of all the African slaves, and the extinction 
of slavery in the States of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, 
Tennessee, and Missouri, by the people or local authorities thereof, 
and whether such an object is expedient and desirable; and further, 
that they inquire and report whether colonization of such emanci- 
pated slaves on this continent or elsewhere is a necessary concomi- 
tant of their freedom, and how, and in what manner, provision may 
be made therefor; and that they further inquire and report how far, 
and in what way, the government of the United States can and ought 
equitably to aid in facilitating either of the above objects; and that 
the committee be further authorized, if in their judgment the subject 
requires it, to extend the same inquiries as to the other slave -hold- 
ing States, and report thereon'' — 

And to which have been referred sundry memorials and petitions 
on the subject of the emancipation and colonization of African slaves; 
also resolutions of the date of June 14, 1862, by the convention of 
the State of Missouri on the same subject; also a special message, of 
the date of July 14, 1862, from the President of the United States 
to the two houses of Congress, transmitting the draught of a bill in aid 
of gradual emancipation by the States, report: 

That the spirit and terms of the resolution clearly characterize 
it as a measure of peace and conciliation. The object and policy it 
contemplates, while they do not and should not arrest the strong mil- 
itary arm of the government in its present struggle against treason- 
able members and disloyal sections, look beyond the present contest, 
to a period where the dominion of law shall have succeeded to the 



2 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



trial of arms, and, as we would fain hope, to the far distant future of 
our reunited country. They appeal for their sanction, not to the 
sovereignty of our national government, nor even to its ordinary legis- 
lative powers, but to those milder agencies in the spirit of which our 
institutions were laid. They address themselves to States, not in the 
language of authority or menace, but in that of kindly deference to 
their separate jurisdictional powers, to expunge by an easy process from 
their social and political organisms a principle that has proved itself 
in the hands of designing men hostile to the continuance of repub- 
lican government, and which, being effete and peculiar, cannot assimi- 
late to the growing influences around it. Before our Union, under 
the present Constitution, and since, a thousand mutual dependencies 
between the States and the confederation have shown that their ra- 
tional appeals, by whatever name they may be known — memorials, 
propositions, resolutions — may be made by one government to the 
other without the imputation or encroachment on the one side or hu- 
miliation on the other. Ours has been emphatically termed a govern- 
ment of reason. This is the very soul of freedom; and almost the 
first experiment (certainly the first on a large scale) in which author- 
ity has been tempered by so mild an element. 

We premise at the threshold, therefore, that however supreme 
the general government must and ought to be in time of civil war, 
even to the destruction of all antagonistic forces, the duties of this 
committee do not propose any constraint either upon States or indi- 
viduals. The committee propose to use freedom of argument because 
the subject and the crisis alike demand it. Aiming to rise above the 
mists of party, and fully impressed with the solemnities of their trust — 
disrobing themselves of all sectionalism, any suspicion of which is 
forbidden by the very constitution of the committee, they remember 
only that they are the representatives of a nation which is the palla- 
dium of the individual liberties of thirty millions of people, and of a 
Union which alone can guarantee dignity and security to the States 
composing it, and that that Union, and consequently those States and 
their institutions, are in imminent danger — a danger springing from 
within, which the war cannot eradicate; for, however its present 
weapons may be blunted by the national power, it will continue to 
exist in forms more insidious but not less threatening, and when it 
cannot strike it will, cancer-like, eat into the vitals of the republic. 
Our nation is yet vigorous, and if wisdom shall guide its councils, 
and public virtue inspire its rulers and its people, it will not only 
survive the present shock, but come out purified and instructed to 
run the race of that manifest destiny which has been its boast. It 
is not within the province of your committee to enlarge upon their 
illustrations of power and their mighty resources, physical, financial, 
and political, it has exhibited in this contest against internal convul- 
sions and foreign envy; but there is one feature in this civil war 
and its experiences so sublimely beautiful and benign that we cannot 
forbear an allusion to it, especially as it proceeds from a principle 
that dictated the creation of this committee, and marked out its field 
of deliberation. We allude to the fact that wherever our arms have 



^ EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 3 

^ gone we have not carried vengeance, or even the storm and repelling 
^justice of retaliation; but, on the contrary, have opened alike to the 
^ loyal and disloyal, on the condition only that the latter forbore their 
opposition to the government, commerce, security, the gentle adminis- 
tration of the civil law, and have almost forced upon an unwilling people 
the blessings of forgiveness and peace. The ancients represented the 
god of war in a chariot drawn by the furious horses Flight and Terror, 
preceded by Discord in tattered garments, while Clamor and Anger 
followed behind. We, on the contrary, have blended the beautiful 
with the terrible; the Cornucoxjia, rather than the Gorgen, is en- 
graved on our shield ; and pursuing the same allegorical representa- 
tion of the mild and genial tendencies of our government, we have 
celebrated the Eleusinian mysteries on the very field of Mars. Mon- 
tesquieu, contrasting the spirit of the Roman wars with those of Alex- 
ander, says, "the aim of the Romans in conquest was to destroy — his, 
to preserve ;' ' and he thus apostrophizes the Macedonian hero : ' 'What 
a conqueror! He is lamented by all the nations he has subdued!" 
Alexander sought for universal empire, not by a consolidated kingdom, 
but by making himself, as it were, the separate monarch of the nations 
he conqured to be parcelled out after his death among his suc- 
cessors. It is his policy in war, and not his ambition, thac has been 
held up for our imitation. 

These views are presented for the single purpose of showing that 
war itself need not be followed by implacable hate or revenge, and, 
under the guide of civilization, may even be made the minister of 
social reform. Virtue is best learned in the school of tribulation. 
Foreign nations learn their duties to each other when they are tasked 
to the utmost, each to preserve itself from destruction by antagonis- 
tic forces. How much more forcible is this lesson, and how much 
easier should the national conscience be reached in a time of civil 
war, v\^hose spoils, if they are but the trophies of arms, are taken 
from the treasury of the conqueror himself? The fact admitted that 
there exists among us something to break the unity of our people 
and to promote discontent against the spirit and workings of our gov- 
ernment, it has nevertheless been said that this is not the time to 
propose healing measures and to address the conscience and the 
reason of the nation or of its discontented members; that moral 
influences are to be repudiated, and that the power of arms, the 
ultima ratio^ is not alone the highest^ but the only argument suited to the 
hour; and that our single duty is, in the inexpressive language of the 
objector, to "crush out the rebellion," as though the rebellion were 
personified in the marshalled ranks of our misguided countrymen now 
in arms against us, many of whom are conscripts to the unwilling 
agents of a tyranny which for years has been entangling their feet 
and enveloping them in its folds, having first shrouded their reason 
in a delusive atmosphere of sophistry and studied falsehood. They 
seem to assume that rebellion has a body but no soul — some Cal- 
iban who may be taught subordination by sensible thwacks. 

And this objection of time is founded, too, in another error — that the 
government while it wages war must be deemed to be stimulated by 



4 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



vengeance alone, and that any proposition it might make to the dis- 
affected portions could be interpreted only as a mandate of conscious 
superiority coming from the stronger power, and therefore insulting to 
the party to whom it is made. Nothing could be more unjust to our 
government or to its righteous motives than such an imputation. The 
very fact that the proposition is made deferentially to State authority 
at -a time when the safety of the nation is on the hazard, it may be, 
of a single battle — when convulsions from within and tornadoes from 
beyond are threatening to rend the solid earth on which we stand, 
and when the highest duty of self-preservation is deemed by many to 
remove all minor restraints upon the action of the only power author- 
ized to employ the warlike energies of the people, ought to be a suf- 
ficient defence against any charge of usurpation, and a sufficient 
quietus to the States against any alarm that their proper and appro- 
priate functions are to be invaded. The mighty rebellion has not 
broken, on the side of the government, the bond of sympathy that 
binds it to the people and the States. Though forced into the 
attitude of a belligerent, it does not disclaim its paternal jurisdiction 
over every interest and every section with which it was ever 
charged, or feel released from any duty that the Constitution or the 
Union has ever imposed upon it. That jurisdictional protection 
which the government thus owes to all its members at all times, and 
under all circumstances, must, however, be manifested according to 
the various exigencies that may demand its exercise, whether it be 
in the form of authority or reason — sometimes by arms, sometimes 
by treaty, (which seems to have no landmarks for its objects,) some- 
times by legal enactment, sometimes by executive proclamation, 
and sometimes by resolution (without the force of law,) submitting 
to the option of the States a change in their local policy or even in 
the fundamental law. An ancient philosopher declared that "he 
esteemed nothing human as foreign to himself;" so it may truly be 
said " nothing American is foreign to our government." Constitu- 
tions may be disregarded, the cement of parchment may be dissolved; 
but a people united by a common sentiment and a mutual sympathy 
can never be corrupted or estranged and not easily conquered — and 
government is but the mould in which this sympathy is cast. 

The President, while performing the active duties of commander-in- 
chief of the army and navy of the United States, and Avhile prosecut- 
ing a war for the preservation of the Union with land and naval forces 
such as have followed the standard of no conqueror in ancient or 
modern times, has thought it not inopportune to recommend the adop- 
tion by Congress of the following joint resolution : 

Besolved, That the United States ought to co-operate with any 
State which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such 
State pecuniary aid to be used by such State in its discretion to com- 
pensate for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such 
change of system." 

This resolution was promptly adopted by both houses of Congress. 
It does not derogate from its peaceful aspect that the message in 
which it was communicated contained this prophetic admonition that 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



5 



"if resistance continues the war must also continue;'^ and that since 
"it is impossible to foresee all the incidents which may attend, and 
all the ruin which may follow it, such as may seem indispensable or 
may obviously promise great efficiency towards ending the struggle 
must and will come." 

The President well knew, the country and the world knows, that 
such a war as this must not and cannot long continue, be the conse- 
quences what they may to the resisting sections. The Peloponne- 
sian war was the knell of Grecian liberty as well as of the independ- 
ence of the several States engaged in the conflict, which, falling at 
first under Macedonian rule, soon became a province of the Roman 
republic. Greece was permitted to be her own destroyer by a wast- 
ing war of twenty-nine years. She had little commerce, and her civil 
convulsions, unlike ours, did not affect the interests of surrounding 
nations. Sooner than see " Achaia" written upon our history, the 
President was justified in sounding the alarm that he might be com- 
pelled, if such a fate impended, to invoke even ruin to our aid. 

But our Chief Magistrate preferred rather to be a minister of peace 
than the artificer even of a partial ruin. If the blood of innocents 
must flow in ruthless and unnatural war by those "incidents" sure 
to attend a protracted struggle, and which " it is impossible to fore- 
see," it was his duty to clear his skirts and the skirts of his consti- 
tuents of these terrible responsibilities; and that he has nobly done so 
all Christendom will bear Avitness. Your committee gladly embrace 
the duty of endeavoring to give practical effect to his wise and humane 
recommendation. They see a volume of meaning and of hope in his 
simple declaration that "the federal government would find its 
highest interest in such a measure as one of the most efficient means of 
self-preservation ;" and with the President the}^ are ready to make 
the appeal when it will find a response to " a?^ the States tolerating 
slavery," if they will heed it — if not, to "the more northern," and 
concur with him that by such a step these States will bind themselves 
forever to the Union. 

The colonists who first settled our country, and the men who framed 
our form of government, were of one blood, and sprang from a com- 
mon ancestry. They brought with them no national antipathies, and, 
whether Cavalier or Roundhead, they all had a common impulse. 
There was not so zealous a republican among them as to forget his 
loyalty to the crown and government of Great Britain even during 
the violent administration of the Stuarts. The annals of Puritanism 
in the colonies may be searched in vain for any such exhibition — nor 
was there a Jacobin among the sons of the Cavaliers. A common 
impulse and a common motive governed all the British colonies. 
Religious toleration soon became the settled policy of the colonies, 
and religion has never since been a disturbing element. The common 
law of England was everywhere adopted, and at an early day every 
badge of aristocracy was discarded from our political systems, includ- 
ing entails and primogeniture. Intimate commercial relations were 
established between the colonies, and at the close of our war of, in- 
dependence nothing had occurred to promote the least discord, 



6 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



jealousy, or unfavorable rivalry. No people ever began their career 
under such favorable auspices. 

True, the idea of a large consolidated republic was not at first 
entertained, and a form of government was devised more in conso- 
nance with the models that history had furnished, which were evi- 
dently drawn from the Grecian commonwealth, or from the union of 
the free cities of more modern times. The republic of Rome served 
rather as a beacon than a guide, being purely military and controlled 
by a compact central power. The founders of our state had no idea 
of a pro-consular form of government, or of anything else than a com- 
monwealth, whose most distant portions should have all the privileges 
of the metropolis, and whose power should be distributed among all 
its members. They never seem to have contemplated colonial ap- 
pendages, as is evident from the early surrender of their territorial 
properties to the common government and provisions for the future 
introduction of these Territories into the Union on an equal footing 
with the original States. 

It is difficult to believe that the secret purposes of the leaders of 
the now discontented and rebellious sections do not contemplate a 
total change in the structure of our free and popular form of govern- 
ment, and a departure from all our traditionary republican theories. 
This degeneracy of sentiment is of modern growth. We must look 
within ourselves and to recent developments of politico-social struc- 
tures for its explanation and its causes. If our ancestors, looking 
forward to the future for which they were preparing their country, 
could ha^e divined any single cause threatening the disruption of 
their government or any convulsive change in its policy, it was not 
to that only anomalous element which then existed — slavery — because 
it is evident they supposed this cause would soon cease to exist. 
They had been constantly exclaiming against the influx of this evil, 
and attributing it to the rapacity of British merchants, sustained by 
a partial government at home, at the expense of the colonists and to 
their great detriment ; and when, in the Constitution, the power was 
lodged in Congress to "regulate commerce among the several States," 
and to prohibit, after a certain period, "the migration or importation 
of such persons as any of the States now (then) existing shall think 
proper to admit,'' every guarantee w^as thought to have been given 
for as speedy a termination of the evil as was consistent with its then 
magnitude, and its inter-ramification with the interests and business 
of the people. We need not recur to cotemporary testimony for 
proof of this. Our annals are full of it. 

The phraseology of the 9th section of the first article of the Con- 
stitution above quoted is most significant, bearing not only on the 
main question in hand, but on some of its collateral issues, which hap- 
pily have not yet arisen to disturb the harmony of our government, 
but, in the strange times on which we have fallen, may possibly arise. 
It will be observed that the 9th section does not vest in Congress the 
exclusive power to control or regulate merely the importation of 
slaves and other persons, but absolutely to prohibit it after 1808, al- 
though the traffic intermediately was intended to be discouraged by 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



7 



the onerous tax that might be laid on each person, reaching to ten 
dollars per head ; and that the limitation during twenty years upon 
the power of Congress over the subject was made in favor of States 
I then existing. And this clause by the 5th article was made inviolate 
i against any amendment of the Constitution prior to 1808. Two in- 
quiries have naturally arisen : first, why was this limitation in the 
. power of Congress over the importation of slaves only made in favor 
I of the States then existing, when it was clearly contemplated that 
new States might be formed or added within the specified period of 
twenty years ? secondly, why did the 5th article only preserve that 
clause inviolate against amendment until the year 1808? 

The answer to these questions furnishes the material of much in- 
structive reflection. As to the first inquiry, it is true that the large 
territory lying northwest of the Ohio river, which had been ceded to 
the confederation by Virginia, was already protected against the 
licentiousness of this traffic by the memorable and immortal ordinance 
of 1787 ; but several of the States, Virginia inclusive, had still large 
appendages of territory that might (as in fact they were) be admitted 
as independent States prior to 1808. It must have been a high mo- 
tive that would exclude these States from the same commercial priv- 
ileges, and from the same facilities to provide for and establish their 
peculiar institutions, that were for this period to be enjoyed by the 
original thirteen. In this respect their necessities might even be 
greater than those of the older Stales. When the convention thus 
forced an inequality of privilege upon the States to be admitted within 
the next twenty years, it must have arisen from their utter condem- 
nation of the system, and have been based upon the supposition that 
importation was the only channel by which it could be fed or main- 
tained. The horrible idea of reducing American-born free men, or 
freed men, to slavery does not seem to have entered into the concep- 
tion of the founders of our Constitution, and its toleration by any au- 
thority is inconsistent with the 4th article of the Constitution, which 
makes it the duty of the United States to guarantee to every State in 
this Union a republican form of government. If slaves cannot be 
brought from Africa by purchase from their acknowledged chieftains, 
a fortiori they cannot be made in the United States. The reserva- 
tion of the right of importation to the thirteen States for the period 
of twenty years was for the obvious reasons of compromising any 
possible conflict of opinion, and not producing too sudden a spark 
either upon the maritime or agricultural interests, of which slave 
transport and slave labor then formed so large a staple. 

In replying to the second above inquiry, "why the clause against 
the importation of slaves was not guarded against amendment or re- 
peal after 1808,'' we have already anticipated in part what we have 
to suggest. It cannot for a moment be supposed that the influences 
which were then moving the philanthropists, the cabinet, and the 
legislature of the mother country in favor of the abolition of slavery 
in all the British colonies, were not equally operative upon the rep- 
resentatives of these colonies when slavery and the slave trade were 
most of all odious. The committee are not unmindful that the ap- 



8 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



parent and manifest object of this provision was to prevent the earlier 
withdrawal of that power from the several States; and their anxiety 
to gain this security is only evidence of their appreciation of the 
prevailing sentiment in this direction. Their willingness to part with 
the power after twenty years is proof of acquiescence in the pro- 
gressive sentiment of Christendom which had been so plainly an- 
nounced in our Declaration of Independence. 

This temporary inviolability of a clause reserving to the several 
States control for a limited period over a subject in which a sudden 
and radical change would have been so injurious to them, is the only 
clause in our Constitution made even temporarily unrepealable, ex- 
cept the one that forever secures to each State its equal suffrage in 
the Senate. On all other subjects the framers of the Constitution 
were willing to trust their posterity to mould their organic law, and 
of course every minor institution, to suit the demands of progressive 
civilization and the wants of the succeeding ages. To suppose that 
they designed to make any reservation in favor of this barbarous- 
relic of Asiatic policy, or ever expected American sentiment to go 
backward on such a subject, is to do their memories the greatest in- 
justice. 

Your committee, therefore, conclude that our fathers w^ho, when 
they brought their fortunes to this wilderness, came also with these 
fixed principles, opposition to prerogative and all hereditary right of 
rule, to aristocracy and titled nobility in all its forms, to tyranny of 
conscience, to limited privileges, and to burdensome oppressions of 
rulers upon the ruled, could not have intended to leave within the 
core of the republican government they erected a principle hostile to 
all these. 

It is not necessary to examine in detail the causes that have pro- 
duced in certain sections of our country a change of sentiment ad- 
verse to the removal of an evil towards which our early policy was 
directed, whose existence was deplored by all the fathers, and from 
which some of the States most oppressed by it strove violently to 
free themselves within the last third of a century. These causes 
doubtless exist partly in economical, but more in social and political 
influences. It was not until our country began to develop its great 
resources that it became in any considerable degree an element of 
discord between the sections. The tendency of the system of plan- 
tation slavery, especially in countries whose staples, being cotton and 
sugar, are so expensive in their culture and manufacture, is, that the 
larger establishments gradually swallow up the smaller; and thus 
while the aggregate wealth of the section may not be diminished, it 
will be very unequally distributed, and population will be feeble 
relatively to neighboring sections where agriculture and commerce 
abound. This, in a government where the numerical majority, slightly 
mixed with the federal element, is the rule and standard of power, 
is apt to breed envy and discontent. Even though it enjoy a full 
share of public patronage, or be able to dictate the policy of the 
country, it will remain restless and unsocial, being perpetually 
haunted by the fear that such power will be ultimately lost by the 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



9 



force of natural causes. Hence they come to regard political rela- 
tions as of more importance than social or industrial privileges, and 
are constantly confusing the public mind with governmental dogmas 
and new canons of constitutional construction. The practical and 
manifold legislation of an industrious people, the springing wants of 
a growing and versatile community furnish to them just so many 
subjects for complaint and mutiny against the action of the majority. 

Your committee do not believe there is, over our wide-spread ter- 
ritory, anything in climate, in diversity of pursuit, or variety of pro- 
duction — anything in the laws, that may be necessary to foster and 
protect their various interests, to engender or promote lasting jeal- 
ousy or discord, if we were in our social systems a homogeneous people. 
This is proved by the fact that the various policies that have engaged 
our public counsels have ultimately sprung from the different sections of 
the countr}^ and have been in turn recommended or dissuaded by the 
same section. The author of the intended revolt of 1832 was the 
author of the very system of policy which furnished the pretext for 
that revolt. Never was a whole country more prosperous, never were 
laws more equal, or administration better equipoised, than when the 
present rebellion was begun; and their feigned list of grievances, in 
its very terms, refers more to imaginary evils in the future than to 
any past injustice. 

This, in connexion with the fact that the politicians and writers of 
the southern school who have inflamed this rebellion have pointed 
their weapons against the recognized principles of free and republi- 
can government, proves that it is the theory and not the administra- 
tion of our government against which this rebellion has been reared; 
that revolution, not redress, is its object; that the Constitution is the 
especial object of its vengeance, and that they w^ill no longer tolerate 
that the power of the government shall be lodged in the masses of the 
people. Mr. Calhoun does not attempt to disguise this in his ' ' Disquisi- 
tion on Government/^ and in his "Discourse on the Constitution and 
Government of the United States" — elaborate and posthumous treatises 
written in the year 1848. He there denounces the government of the 
numerical majority, and demands in lieu of it the rule of what he 
terms the concurrent majority, which is, that "each separate interest 
or portion" should give their consent before any act should be au- 
thoritative, so "as to give to the weaker section, in some one form 
or another, a negative on the action of the government." 

It is difficult to believe that the author of such heresies intended any- 
thing else but anarchy and the destruction of our government, espe- 
cially when the remedy he too plainly recommends is forcible resistance. 
He nowhere defines, by geographical or other descriptions, the limits of 
those "interests" or "portions" that are thus to control the general 
will, but holds the tempting bait as well to petty interests and pam- 
pered lordlings as to States and sections; and he oifers but one prac- 
tical illustration of the anticipated tyranny of the majority, and that 
is, that the relation of master and slave will be violently assailed. 

The protection of slavery has been undoubtedly the pretext of the 
present rebellion; but even the well-organized power of the superior 



10 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



classes, the few favored slave -owners of the planting States, could 
not have enlisted, on such a pretext, the sympathies of millions of - 
their poor and laboring fellow-citizens to join in this crusade against 
the government, if they had not, by years of studied preparation j 
and deception, prepared them for the catastrophe. The love of ' 
country is innate in all men, even the most abject. They had been 
taught that the decay of their section was due to the unequal action 
of their government. Shut out from the light of education and the 
irradiations of a daily press, they were the easy dupes of such soph- 
istry, and, whether convinced or not, their loyalty was soon over- 
whelmed and turned to treason by the wizard power and machinery 
of government held in the hands of the favored few. 

It is a much more difficult problem how some of the border States 
were so readily drawn into the abyss, and can only be accounted for 
on the principle that social sympathy is the strongest bond of union 
known among men. 

Thus it is that against every law of reason, every dictate of self- 
interest, every patriotic hope and all pride of country, almost the 
entire slaveholding section of our country has been suddenly plunged 
into revolt against their government, endangering at once their own 
well-being and the general interests of humanity. 

Such a startling result, the suicide of a nation, does not proceed 
from transient or momentary causes, any more than its effects have 
been slight or momentary. Those causes are known; the long 
line of ages may be necessary fully to disclose the results. Provi- 
dence has so ordained that the least offending have suffered the most. 
In this way it is, perhaps. He appeals most strongly to men to do 
their duty. If the march of the destroying angel could now be 
stopped, by bare possibility the border States might, after painful 
trial, recover themselves upon the basis of their former status. But 
without some reinvigorating principle, human chances are against 
them, and their decay is the decay of the whole country, as their 
restoration would make them, from their central position, the great- 
est of the sisterhood. A false affinity has hurried part of their 
strength into alliance with southern treason. If they would save 
themselves and the country they must break this mystic symbol of 
alliance with discontented and disloyal States. 

Your committee entertain the solemn conviction that the border 
slave States hold in their hand the destinies of our country; and if 
they would join the great brotherhood of free labor and republican 
equality; that it is not yet too late for national salvation. Unwil- 
lingly they constitute the strength of the rebellion. It derives all its 
dignity from their alliance, as it draws all its sustenance from their 
bosom. They are not unaware that such an exhausting civil war 
cannot long continue ; that it must soon become a war of extermina- 
tion; a wild, convulsive, and revolutionary struggle of social elements, 
in which the humanities of war may be forgotten; and it is easy to 
see where, amid the general ruin, would be the blackest desolation. 

It is painful, even in imagination, to advert to such possible conse- 
quences; but the highest duty of a public counsellor now is truth, 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



11 



not flattery, and your committee congratulate themselves that it is 
their peculiar province to bear the olive branch, and not the sword. 
They go on a hopeful mission to the living, and not to the dead. 
When the reproductive principle will kindle again into patriotic life 
and action the mouldering heart of confirmed treason, Omniscience 
alone can determine ; but human wisdom may not condemn as hope- 
less our solemn appeal to the border States, allied, as they yet are, 
■' to our glorious Union, and to its supporting elements, by so many 
; kindred attractions. They have but to pronounce a mystic word, 
and the heavens are bright again. It requires on their part no abate- 
ment of dignity, no concession of State rights, no personal humilia- 
tion, no sacrifice of interest. The humiliation, if any, is the crown 
of glory that our President has earned in waiving his high preroga- 
tive and becoming a suitor to a small but most controlling portion of 
his constituents. The border States throughout all the mutations of 
their past or future fortunes will be Aveighed in the balances of the 
present hour. They may turn prophecy into history, and prove the 
truth of that glorious prediction that "a nation shall be born in a 
day.'' 

It would be equally incompatible with the dignity and self-respect 
of this nation, as^ it would be idle and fruitless, to tender, in the pres- 
ent condition of affairs, any proposition of this nature to the States 
in complete revolt, and where the heart of treason, even where we 
have restored our benign authority, with forgiveness on our banner, 
is as rancorous as ever. They must be committed to those inevita- 
ble results invoked by themselves that follow in the character and 
train of war. They have threatened, and still threaten, uncompro- 
mising and endless resistance ; and, in the language of the President, 
"if resistance continues the war must also continue, and it is impos- 
sible to foresee all the incidents which may attend and all the ruin 
which may follow it. Such as may seem indispensable or may oh- 
viously promise great efficiency toioards ending the struggle must and ivill 
come. ' ' 

But, fortunately, in the border States of Delaware, Maryland, Vir- 
ginia. Kentucky, and Missouri, including Tennessee, the temper of 
the people, schooled as they have been in this terrible crucible of na- 
tional tribulation, of which they have been made, involuntarily, at 
once the principal victims and partial agents, and alive to those sym- 
pathies that bind them, as agricultural and carrying States, to an 
undivided Union of which they are properly the keystone, to say 
nothing of their participation in the ruling sentiment of the age, are 
not averse to this only possible mode of reconciliation, if fair ex- 
pression can be given to their will. Nor is the evil there of such mag- 
nitude as to exceed the remedial powers of those States aided by the 
general government. By the census of 1860 the slave population of 
those States was 1,196,112. Making due allowance for slaves already 
lost by the w^ar or removed further south, and for those held by re- 
bellious owners and now entitled to their enfranchisement by act of 
Congress, it is fair to presume that not more than half the foregoing 
number are at this moment held in legitimate slavery. 



12 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



We assume a total, then, of 600, 000 slaves, young and oM, whose 
manumission is to be provided for, now held by loyal owners within 
the. limits we are considering. At the maximum valuation set upon 
slaves by the late emancipation law for the District of Columbia, 
which is the same allowed by Great Britain to her West India own- 
ers, these would mount to $180,000,000. The President has called 
the attention of Congress and the country to the fact that the cur- 
rent expenses of the war would very soon purchase at fair valuation 
all these slaves. 

If this were, then, our last plank, and a desperate emergency re- 
quired the putting forth an extraordinary financial effort, the country 
would not long hesitate between an appropriation of $180,000,000 
for six months more of war, which, whatever its triumphs, might be 
uncertain in its moral result, or the same appropriation for a different 
object when moral effect would be to end the war, make us one 
people in interest, in habit, and in feeling, and restore perpetuity to 
the Union by reducing to insignificant dimensions every antagonism. 

But no such strain is necessary on our public credit or resources. 
If this committee felt itself charged with, all the details necessary for 
the instant removal of an evil that has the accumulated growth of 
centuries, they might canvass the many forms in which the govern- 
ment, easiest to itself, could aid the States in such act of emancipa- 
tion without an immediate drain on the national treasury, or a pres- 
sure on the public credit beyond the ability of the nation. They 
would consider the availability of our vast territorial possessions and 
public domain; the fact that most of these border States are op- 
pressed by a heavy weight of local debt, the assumption of which 
at a distant day, or an equitable proportion by the general govern- 
ment, would the better enable them to adjust the inequalities among 
their own citizens by the act of emancipation; they might propose a 
specific application of the share of direct taxes falling upon these 
States, or of the confiscated estates of the rebels within their own 
limits or elsewhere, who have murdered and exiled their brethren. 
If immediate emancipation, and direct and immediate compensation 
were the demands of the question, it would be the duty of the com- 
mittee to inquire diligently into the ways and means. 

But the committee concur Avith the President, that "gradual, not 
sudden, emancipation is better for all," and such only is the scope of 
the inquiry submitted to them by the resolution of the House. A 
sudden emancipation, with compensation, would involve too heavy a 
financial burden; and, unless to that were added deportation and colo- 
nization, (also attended with heavy expense,) would oppress the 
nation with a helpless population, and might produce serious resist- 
ance on the side of the laborious interests of our own color and race. 
Whatever provision of this nature there may be recommended by the 
committee, it is evident must depend for its execution and fulfilment 
on the speedy termination of the war. Both the ability and temper 
of the government fully to accomplish this the greatest effort that 
human society has ever been called upon to make for its own pres- 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



13 



ervation, would be lost by protracting for any considerable time 
this exhausting and expensive war. 

In the double expectation, then, of relieving ourselves from a still 
greater burden by the employment of a moral influence that shall 
bring to a speedy conclusion this disastrous civil war and save its 
further horrors, and of throwing upon our posterity the responsi- 
bility of meeting a share of the engagement, the committee have as- 
sumed a period of twenty years during which the proposed process 
of emancipation will be going on, thus distributing through that 
period the labor of providing the requisite compensation to the 
States concerned. This will give us an opportunity to recover from 
the waste of war, and to re-establish under better auspices our almost 
boundless credit and resources. To effect its object, the mode of 
compensation should be certain and reliable; and the committee have, 
therefore, adopted the plan recommended by the President in his 
special message to the two houses of Congress, of the date of July 
14, 1862, which is an issue of the bonds of the government to be 
delivered to the emancipating States. 

The sum proposed as compensation to the States is one hundred and 
eighty millions of dollars, which would give, upon the above hypothe- 
sis, an average of three hundred dollars to the loyal owner of each 
manumitted slave, but nothing is payable until the State has passed 
her act of emancipation. If this sum were distributed ratably through 
the whole series of twenty years, it would require an issue of bonds 
to the amount of nine millions of dollars each of those years. The 
average annual interest, at five per cent., would be four millions and 
a half, and the maximum annual interest at the end of the period 
would be nine millions of dollars. This for a government wdiose or- 
dinary revenues in times past have been eighty millions of dollars, 
with prospect of great increase in the future, surely ought not to deter 
us from the attempt to accomplish so great a good, and from an effort 
which will crown the present generation, in the judgment of poster- 
ity and the world, as the benefactors of their race. 

The committee have proposed an amount of twenty millions of dol- 
lars, as it may be needed, for the purposes of colonization. That im- 
portant subject will be fully elaborated in the after pag'es of this re- 
port, and we cannot doubt that the country will ratify the necessary 
appropriations for so great an object. 

Much of the objection to emancipation arises from the opposition 
of a large portion of our people to the intermixture of the races, and 
from the association of white and black labor. The committee would 
do nothing to favor such a policy; apart from the antipathy which 
nature has ordained, the presence of a race among us who cannot, and 
ought not to, be admitted to our social and political privileges, will be 
a perpetual source of injtiry and inquietude to both. This is a ques- 
tion of color, and is unaffected by the relation of master and slave. 
The introduction of the negro, whether bond or free, into the same 
field of labor with the Avhite man, is the opprobrium of the latter : 
and we cannot believe that the thousands of non-slaveholding citizens 
in the rebellious States who live by industry are fighting to continue 



14 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



the negro within our limits even in a state of vassalage, but more 
probably from a vague apprehension that he is to become their com- 
petitor in his own right. We wish to disabuse our laboring country- 
men, and the whole Caucasian race who may seek a home here, of 
this error. We are satisfied that the labor of our cotton fields, as 
well as of our corn fields, may be performed by the white man, and 
we would offer to these sons of labor the emoluments of both. There 
is no sounder maxim in political economy than that the cultivators 
of the soil should be the owners of the soil. The committee conclude 
that the highest interests of the white race, whether Anglo-Saxon, 
Celt, or Scandinavian, require that the whole country should be held | 
and occupied by those races alone. 

Of the four or five millions of colored people now in the United 
States, the net of their productive and unencumbered labor may be i 
reduced, when subjected to the standard of numbers, to probably one- I 
fifth of that amount. If this were removed, even by a speedy process, 
how soon its vacant channels would be filled by the natural distribu- 
tion of our own redundant population, and by a newly stimulated 
immigration from Europe, must be apparent to all; and how suddenly 
and largely the material elements of wealth, land especially, would 
augment in value in sections relieved of this incubus, is equally ap- 
parent. In 1810 there were more than 40,000 slaves in the northern 
States, of whom about one-half Avere in the southern counties of New 
York. The day of thrift began with the dawn of emancipation there. 
When New York gave freedom to her slaves, it was a gift that did 
not impoverish the donor, "but made her rich indeed." 

We shall elsewhere in this report illustrate the truth that the re- 
tention of the negro among us with half privileges is but a bitter 
mockery to him, and that our duty is to find for him a congenial home 
and country. 

The African slave trade was first inaugurated in America during 
the reign of Queen Elizabeth, some three hundred years ago, and 
was continued under the auspices of the British crown for nearly or 
quite two centuries. There was scarcely one of the thirteen colonies 
into Avhich the institution of African slavery was not introduced, and 
established in the face of repeated protests, on the part of the people, 
to the King and Parliament of Great Britain ; and, although the 
people of the more northern colonies soon discovered the inadaptation 
of their rugged soil and ungenial climate to slave labor, they never- 
theless continued to be the principal carriers of slaves from Africa to 
the more southern colonies long after they had ceased to import for 
themselves, and after our country had thrown off her colonial shackles, 
and even up to the time when the slave trade was prohibited by act 
of Congress. 

The fortunes which have in times past been accumulated by the 
purchase of negroes on the African coast and their sale to southern 
planters Avere mostly amassed by people residing in those States 
where slavery had long been abolished by law. Moreover, from the 
time when the northern States began to declare the children of slave 
mothers thereafter born should be free, the slaves in those States 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



15 



began to decline in their market value, and many owners, actuated 
by self-interest, transported their slaves to the more southern States 
for better markets. Thus it will be observed that the responsibility 
I for the evil of slavery in the southern States rests not alone upon the 
1 people of those States. If slavery be a social, political, and moral 
, evil, which very few will at this day deny, it is so in a national, 
: and not merely in a local sense, and the responsibility for the curses 
it entails upon the country is alike national. It is also believed, 
whatever arguments may be adduced to the contrary, that the native 
instincts of every candid man instruct him that if our country had 
never knowm the institution of slavery, it never would have been 
convulsed by this injurious and wicked rebellion which now afflicts us. 

As, therefore, the responsibility of slavery, the gains of its early 
traffic, as well as its evil consequences, have been and are national, 
so the nation ought to afford an equitable equivalent for the incon- 
veniences attending its removal. 

It is believed that the most formidable difficulty which lies in the 
way of emancipation in most if not in all the slave States is the belief, 
which obtains especially among those who own no slaves, that if the 
negroes shall become free, they must still continue in our midst, and, 
so remaining after their liberation, they may in some measure be 
made equal to the Anglo-Saxon race. It is useless, now, to enter 
upon any philosophical inquiry whether nature has or has not made 
the negro inferior to the Caucasian. The belief is indelibly fixed 
upon the public mind that such inequality does exist. There are 
irreconcilable differences between the two races which separate them, 
as with a wall of fire. There is no instance afforded us in history 
where liberated slaves, even of the same race, have lived any con- 
siderable period in harmony with their former masters when denied 
equality with them in social and political privileges. But the Anglo- 
American never will give his consent that the negro, no matter how 
free, shall be elevated to such equality. It matters not how wealthy, 
how intelligent, or how morally meritorious the negro may become, 
so long as he remains among us the recollection of the former relation 
of master and slave will be perpetuated by the changeless color of the 
Ethiop's skin, and that color will alike be perpetuated by the degrading 
tradition of his former bondage. Without this equality of political and 
social privileges, and without the hope of a home and government of 
their own, the emancipation of the slaves of the south will be but add- 
ing a new burden to their wretchedness by compelling them to pro- 
vide for themselves and families, without setting before them scarcely 
a single incentive to exertion, or, if such incentive should exist, it 
would only be in the desperate desire that by some bloody revolution 
they might possibly conquer for themselves that equality which their 
liberators had denied them. The result of such a revolution would 
doubtless be their utter annihilation or re-enslavement. To appre- 
ciate and understand this difficulty, it is only necessary for one to ob- 
serve that, in proportion as the legal barriers established by slavery 
have been removed by emancipation, the prejudice of caste becomes 
stronger, and public opinion more intolerant to the negro race. 



16 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



To remove this obstacle is a work well worthy of the efforts of a 
great people anxious for their own future well-being, and moved by 
a spirit of humanity towards an enslaved and degraded class of their 
fellow beings. How, then, can the separation of the races after eman- 
cipation be accomplished? Colonization appears to be the only mode 
in which this can be done. The home for the African must not be 
within the limits of the present territory of the Union. The Anglo- 
American looks upon every acre of our present domain as intended 
for him, and not for the negro. A home, therefore, must be sought 
for the African beyond our own limits and in those warmer regions 
to which his constitution is better adapted than to our own climate, 
and which doubtless the Almighty intended the colored races should 
inhabit and cultivate. Hayti and others of the West India islands, 
Central America and the upper portions of South America, and Libe- 
ria, are all interesting fields of inquiry in relation to the future of the 
liberated negroes of the United States. There they maybe provided 
with homes in a climate suited to their highest physical, intellectual, 
and moral development, and there, under the beneficent protection 
and friendship of the freest and most powerful of all the governments 
of the world, they may enjoy true liberty with all its attendant bless- 
ings, and achieve the high destiny which the Almighty has intended 
man should everywhere accomplish. 

If the good which would thus be effected for an oppressed people, 
by their removal from our midst and their settlement in other parts 
of the globe, were the only object to be attained by the system of 
colonization, that alone w^ould be worthy the high and holy ambition 
of a great nation. But whilst we should confer untold blessings upon 
them, ours would be even a greater gain. 

First among the benefits which would be felt by the removal of the 
slaves from any of the States would be the substitution of the system 
of free labor for that of slave labor. The advantages of the former 
over the latter have been apparent in this country to the most super- 
ficial observer for more than a century. At a very early period in 
the history of the colonies it did not fail to attract the attention of 
our fathers that those districts of country in which there were the 
fewest slaves increased the most rapidly in population and wealth. 
In some degree it might seem to be accounted for by the difference 
in the habits, laws, and customs of the settlers of the several provinces: 
but w^hen at a subsequent day these settlers and their descendants in 
the peopling of the new and more fertile soil of the west intermin- 
gled with each other, the same extraordinary result was witnessed at 
every stage of emigration. When at last the tide of emigration, 
rushing from the south as well as the north, had reached that stream 
which the aborigines of the country had called the Beautiful River, 
the great superiority of free over slave labor was demonstrated with 
a degree of certainty which left no longer any room for doubt. To 
the impartial, nay even to the partial and prejudiced traveller who 
journeys along the banks of that majestic river, the widest and most 
striking distinction is observable, and has been for more than one 
generation, in everything that characterizes the progressive spirit 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



17 



of the age. The valley Avhich is watered by the Ohio is perhaps one 
of the most fertile upon the face of the globe. If there be any dif- 
ference in the fertility of the soil and other natural advantages on 
either bank of that river the superiority in these respects is on the 
side of the people who inhabit that portion of this magnificent valley 
lying on the south of the river. To say that it is as rich as Kentucky 
is the highest praise that can be spoken of the fertility of any soil. 
The State of Kentucky lying upon the left bank of the Ohio was ad- 
mitted as a State into the Union several years before the State of 
Ohio, which lies upon the right bank. The area of the two States 
is nearly equal. Kentucky was admitted into the Union almost before 
the sound of the axe of the white man had ever disturbed the idle 
dreams of the native children of the forest. In less than thirty years, 
however, from the admission of Ohio into the Union her population 
had exceeded that of Kentucky by more than a quarter of a million. 
In forty years that excess was over three-quarters of a million ; in 
ten years more it was about one million, and the census of 1860 shows 
that the population of Ohio is now more than double that of Ken- 
tucky. Ohio now contains 2,339,599 and Kentucky only 1,155,713 
people. 

The difference is equally marked in the comparative wealth of the 
two States, not less so in their works of |)ublic improvement and in 
the advancement and diffusion of education and general intelligence 
among the people. 

If a similar comparison of the progress of any one of the old free 
States with any one of the old slave States be instituted, as New 
York with Virginia, or Massachusetts with South Carolina, it will be 
seen that while the slave States enjoy a superiority in almost all the 
natural advantages of soil, climate, mineral and forest products, the 
free States have by their system of free labor wrought out for them- 
selves a superiority in almost everything that can tend to elevate a 
State or community in the scale of progressive civilization. Or if 
the investigation should be narrowed to the limits of even the very 
smallest of all the slave States in the Union, the State of Delaware, 
and an exhibit made as to the comparative wealth, progress, and 
thrift of the several counties, it will appear that in the upper county, 
bordering on the free State of Pennsylvania, and where there is but 
one slave for every two hundred freemen, with less than one -half the 
extent of territory embraced in the .lower county, where there are 
ten times the number of slaves in proportion to the free people, or 
one slave for every score of free persons, has far outstripped the lat- 
ter county in the increase of population, and in that wealth and 
material prosperity which are the sure rewards of labor and industry. 
In New Castle, the upper county, the population is nearly 60,000; 
in Sussex, the low^er county, it is less than 30, 000. In New Castle 
the population has doubled in the last thirty years; in Sussex it has 
increased less, about 10 per cent, in the last thirty years. In New 
Castle the aggregate assessed value of the real estate is $18,000,000; 
in Sussex it is only about $4,000,000. In New Castle the aggregate 

H. Rep. Com. 148 2 



18 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



of both real and personal estate is $28,000,000; in Sussex it is less 
than $6,000,000. In New Castle there is one inhabitant for every 
jSve acres of land; in Sussex there is only one inhabitant for every 
22 acres. In New Castle the average assessed value of land is 
$67 per acre; in Sussex it is $6 per acre. In New Castle the white 
farm hand commands for his services an average of $13 per month and 
board; in Sussex he can scarcely command $9. In New Castle the 
average product of the farm land per acre is at least 36 bushels of 
Indian corn and 18 bushels of wheat per acre; in Sussex the average 
is not exceeding 12 bushels of corn and six bushels of wheat per acre. 

If we make the most liberal allowance for the supposed advantages 
of position, works of public improvement, and other and every other 
conceivable advantage that can be thrown into the account in favor 
of the upper or non-slaveholding county, and attribute to them one- 
half its superiority over the lower or slaveholding county, the dis- 
parity between them is so startling that it cannot fail to enlist the 
attention of every one who is candidly searching after the truth in 
reference to the paralyzing effects of the institution of slavery upon 
the growth and prosperity of the community in which it is tolerated. 
The gain to be derived from its removal is equally apparent and 
wonderful. Let us suppose that by the action of the legislature of 
Delaware the slaves could all be liberated by some gradual system of 
emancipation, and that it should have no other effect than to increase 
the value of the land in the slaveholding county of Sussex from its 
present value, $6, to $12 per acre, and then estimate the difference 
between the loss occasioned by reason of emancipation, supposing 
that the owners were not compensated at all, or were compensated 
out of the treasury of the State. The estimate is a short and simple 
one. 

There are now in Sussex county less than 1,000 slaves, but taking 
the number at 1,000, and their value on the average to be $500, 
which is nearly double their true worth at the prices they could com- 
mand in the State, and we have the whole value of the slaves to be 
$500,000. This is the item of loss. Noav for the item of profit. 

There are in the county of Sussex 635,520 acres of land, at present 
valued at six dollars per acre. If that value should be increased, as 
it doubtless would, to $12 per acre, we have an increment in the 
aggregate value of the land of $3, 813, 120, from which if we subtract 
the loss on slaves by freeing them, we have a net gain to the county 
of $3,313,120, or if we only admit the appreciation in the value of 
land to be $2 per acre, we still find the county to be the gainer by 
$1,104,373. 

To make them equal in their future career in prosperity requires 
but the substitution of honorable free white labor for the degrading 
system of negro slave labor. And what is true of the least is true of 
the largest and of all the States in which the institution of slavery 
now exists. 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



19 



COMMERCIAL ADVANTAGES OF COLONIZATION IN THE AMERICAN TROPICS. 

The commercial aspect which the proposed plan of colonization 
presents claims especial attention at this time beyond that which 
under ordinary circumstances would attach to it; and instead of being 
deterred from embracing, by apprehension of entailing additional 
burdens upon the nation, it can be made to appear that it is essential 
to the speedy restoration of commercial prosperity, and the only mode 
of indemnity for the losses and destruction of property inflicted by 
the war. At its close it will be found that the market for the pro- 
duct of our factories and farms at the south will have fallen off to a 
vast extent. The channels into which our industry has been diverted 
by the war will also be closed by the re -establishment of peace, and 
we shall find ourselves with a large debt, diminished resources, and 
the market for the products of labor, which at one time made a large 
part of our prosperity, closed to us, in great measure, from sheer in- 
ability to purchase by the people of the south. Such circumstances 
impose a necessity for measures to revive our commercial and indus- 
trial prosperity, so that our people may be enabled to bear the bur- 
den of taxation entailed upon them by the struggle to preserve the 
government. Economy in the public expenditure is not the only 
means to which we shall be compelled to resort. The interest on 
the public debt alone will absorb that which has heretofore been con- 
sidered an ample revenue ; and to maintain the government which we 
have preserved, will, for some years, at least, require military and 
naval establishments costing more perhaps than the whole expendi- 
ture of the government in former years. Enterprise and the exten- 
sion of the business of the country must therefore come to our aid, 
as well as frugality. We must make new markets for the products 
of the skill and industry of our people. How shall we find, or how 
create them? If we inquire what is the foundation of the wealth 
and power of Great Britain — what enables her people to endure such 
an enormous load of debt and maintain such expensive civil, military, 
and naval establishments, the answer will furnish a solution for our 
own difficulties. The very corner-stone of her prosperity consists in 
her colonial system, by which she furnishes markets for her manufac- 
tures, and swells her commercial importance by the interchange of 
their product for that of the soil of that vast portion of the habitable 
globe which acknowledges her sway. By this system she has built 
up an empire greater than the Eoman, and rules a portion of every 
race of mankind; making them contribute to her wealth and power, 
and imparting to them what is of equal value, her free institutions 
and the blessings of a stable government. But for the employments 
thus secured for her people in the factories and workshops which 
furnish her vast and distant colonies with almost every manufactured 
article used in civilized and semi-barbarous communities, and in the 
countless fleets which transport these fabrics and the products which 
they purchase, the empire of Great Britain would shrink in an hour, 
and its seat become an appendage of that neighboring power of which 
she has so long been the peer. 



20 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



We find ourselves, from causes nearly the same, burdened with a 
debt which begins to assume proportions like that of England, and 
our military establishment, for obvious reasons, must be larger than 
heretofore. The ordinary revenue measures, which in former years 
were ample, will not hereafter suffice to pay interest and increased 
expenditures, and we must meet the necessities of our position by 
opening new resources and stimulating those branches of business 
which experience has shown will best bear taxation. We must make 
other nations bear a part of our burdens, as England by becoming 
the world's factor makes the world share her's. 

Adjacent to us there are two countries whose natural wealth tran- 
scends that of any other portion of the earth's surface. So well is 
this fact understood, that the governments and people of the other 
continents have sought, from the time of its discovery until the 
present, to control it by colonizing it with their own people and with 
subject races, in order that they might unlock its treasures, and en- 
rich, not the colonists alone, but themselves also. The tropical re- 
gions of America, from their peculiar conformation and from other 
natural causes, need only to be peopled by a race able, by their phy- 
sical organization, to endure its climate, to assert their pre-eminent 
productiveness over every other part of the world. It is only neces- 
sary to glance at the map of those regions to appreciate this fact. 

The islands of the Gulf and Carribean sea, and the narrow isthmus 
which unites the two continents, moistened by the exhalations of the 
surrounding seas and stimulated by the glowing heat of the vertical 
sun, fully account for nature's boundless prodigality to them. As the 
continent becomes broad towards the south, the vast interior, remote 
from the ocean, receives its moisture from certain natural causes 
which do not exist elsewhere in the torrid zone. It will be observed, 
that the continent of South America assumes the shape of a right- 
angled triangle, the line of its western coast representing the hypo- 
thenuse — the other two sides, facing to the northeast and to the south- 
east, directly in the track of the northeastern and southaestern trade 
winds. These winds, blowing ceaselessly in the same direction, 
sweeping over a vast expanse of ocean, and thus surcharged with 
moisture, strike at right angles upon both eastern coasts, and, pene- 
trating far into the interior, the wet winds are congealed by the 
cold atmosphere of the mountains and precipitated in rain, fertilizing 
the vast continent, and forming large rivers, some of which are navi- 
gable for three thousand miles by seagoing vessels, and traverse the 
whole country. The cause which creates its fertility has also sup- 
plied the channels of access to its riches, and marked it as the seat of 
empire. No man can fail to perceive why it is that all nations have 
sought, and are still seeking, to subject these regions to their sway, 
and to seize its illimitable wealth ; but there are other causes which 
have rendered these efforts abortive, and will continue to do so until 
they shall be possessed by a race of men whose physical organization 
enables them to endure the torrid climate, and who shall at the same 
time have attained sufficient civilization to maintain stable govern- 
ments. No race of men incapable of labor in a climate can preserve 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



21 



its civilization. Thus the primeval curse denounced upon mankind 
is revealed to us in the silent workings of nature's law. 

It will not be out of place, in order that the superiority of the 
tropical regions of America over those of Asia and Africa may be 
fully appreciated, to notice the striking difference between them in 
the circumstances to which attention has been drawn. The islands 
and narrow portions of these continents are, as a matter of course, 
subject to the same conditions, and therefore display the same results, 
' except where a difference is produced by a hardier race of inhabitants 
i or controlling cause. But where those continents becom.e broad, the 
prevailing winds are found to be parallel with the coast, and hence 
neither collect such vast amounts of moisture, nor do they penetrate 
into the interior, but their fertilizing effects are felt only by a belt of 
wind along the coasts, which are fringed with verdure, while the inte- 
rior is a rainless desert, whose sands swallow up the rivers before 
they reach the sea. Even that portion which is fertile is subject to 
another condition which makes it unsuitable for the production of the 
most valuable staples of the tropics. The Avinds not being trade 
winds, or constant from the sea to the lands, but on the contrary un- 
steady and varying, produce the wet and dry seasons, deluging the 
land during one -half of the year, and parching it with drouth through 
another period. The American cotton planters selected by the English 
government to test the practicability of raising a supply of cotton in 
British India assigned this peculiarity of wet and dry seasons as the 
cause of the failure of the experiment. There certainly must be 
some inherent cause of difficulty, and this explanation appears the 
most plausible, as it is well knoAvn that both wet and dry seasons are 
inimical to the growth of the plant. In the American tropics the 
rains are distributed throughout the year, as is the case in the tem- 
perate latitudes, but there they make an unceasing summer, maturing 
two crops in the year. Cotton and sugar grow without cultivation 
or care, and reproduce themselves for fourteen years without plant- 
ing, and in far greater abundance and better quality than in any of 
the southern States of the Union. Coffee is probably a profitable 
crop in larger portions of the American tropics than cotton or sugar, 
and is secured with less labor. The coffee crop of Venezuela alone 
is valued at 8,000,000 of Spanish dollars, and is of a superior quality. 
Cocoa is another most valuable commercial commodity, in which the 
country abounds, and to these may be added the most valuable medi- 
cinal plants, dyestuffs, spices, fruits, and precious woods. Gold, silver, 
and precious stones are probably as abundant as in any part of the 
world. Fibrous plants, other than the cotton, whose product enters 
largely into commerce, and are destined to be still more extensively 
used, are found in such abundance as to justify the belief that they 
may become the leading interest of these regions. The value of 
these fibres, and the unlimited product of the plants which supply 
them, taken in connexion with the fact that many of these same plants 
produce food and valuable fruits, while the bark or stalk yields fibres 
of great value, even when prepared by the rude and primitive instru- 
ments now in use, gives especial interest to this subject, which would 



22 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



justify an extended notice. When these regions shall become densely 
peopled the yield of food will be a great object, and, with the appli- 
cation of machinery to the preparation of its fibres, the value of a | 
plant which can feed and clothe untold millions and supply many i 
other wants of the civilized world cannot be easily overestimated. ! 
This subject cannot be better illustrated than by the following brief 
extracts from a recent work of E. G. Squier, esq., "on The Fibres of 
the Tropics," bearing on one family of the seplants, that of the 
'•musa or banana family,'' which is one only of the many thousand" 
fibrous plants, and which is by no means the most valuable for the 
quality or prolific in the quantity of its fibre. He says: 

" The various members of this family (the banana) rank only second to the 
agaves and bromelias in the cjuantity and value of their fibres. Several varie- 
ties are cultivated for food, yielding a delicious and nourishing fruit, and in such 
abundance that Humboldt estimates the product of a single acre as equal to the 
average product of 133 acres of wheat and 44 acres of potatoes. An interest- 
ing, and for the purpose which we have in view, a most important fact, is that 
the tree or plant, whether plantain or banana, is almost universally cut down | 
when the fruit is gathered with proper machinery for extracting the fibre. Many 
millions of plants thus left to rot could be converted into articles of the first! 
utility for mankind, such as cordage, cloth, paper, &:c., &c." m 

Recurring again to the uses to which this fibre is applied, the writer 
continues: 

" As already said, the coarse fibres are used to make cables, which have great 
solidity and durability. Ropes of great tenacity are also made from them, which 
are used in many ways, but particularly in rigging coasting vessels. Of the 
finer sorts tissues or muslins are made of great beauty, which are very dear. 
* * # * * J ^ number of shirts made from this muslin, which lasted 
me a long time, and were cool and agreeable in the use. But it is especially in 
France that tissues of this material are best made, and of the greatest beauty. 
They receive all colors with equal perfection. Veils, capes, neckerchiefs, robes, 
and women's hats, all of great beauty and high cost, as well as of wonderful 
durability, are among the manufactures from the abaca (a species of plantain) 
fibre." 

It would be difiicult, if not impossible, to overstate the productive- 
ness of the tropical regions of America, or to find another spot on 
earth where labor is so abundantly repaid. The labor of one million 
rude and barbarous negroes in Cuba may be said, without metaphor, 
to support the civil, military, and naval establishments of Spain; and 
yet Cuba is by no means superior to many other portions of our 
tropics. It may therefore be well imagined what would be the result 
of planting five millions of American negroes, far superior in skill and 
intelligence to those of Cuba, in a country equal to the Queen of the 
Antilles, protected by our power and directed by our intelligence, 
and stimulated to exertion by those motives which the wants of civili- 
zation, which they have acquired among us, have never failed to sup- 
ply, and which are higher and more efiicient than any other which 
can animate men. If we add to this the certain result of extending 
our power and influence, through their instrumentality, over the mil- 
lions of people who already inhabit these regions, we shall be able to 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



23 



form some conception of the value to onr commerce which the foun- 
dation of such a colony would confer. 

It has been sufficiently demonstrated that the white race cannot 
retain its vigor and strength in that climate, but rapidly deteriorates 
and finally becomes effete. We have seen that in all the Spanish 
American States, as soon as the connexion between them and the 
mother country was broken, and they ceased to receive new strength 
from that source, the white race has swiftly sunk in importance and 
the colored races have as rapidly resumed their power and control. 
Juarez, the President of Mexico, is a pure blooded Indian, a man of 
liberal views, of education, and great ability; but his greatest power 
consists in his hold upon the masses of the people, who are of the 
same race, and who are swayed by the powerful sympathies of blood. 
Carrera, the dictator of Guatemala, is a mestizo. He began life as a 
common soldier, without education; but he had an enterprising and 
daring temper, and has ruled for nearly twenty-five years, by an un- 
disputed title, amid the chaos which has surrounded him on all sides. 
Santos Guardiola, the recent ruler of Honduras, was also a mestizo, 
and built his power upon the same foundation. And no one can have 
failed to observe the power and influence which Great Britain has ex- 
ercised, and the substantial advantages she has obtained in all the 
countries around the Gulf of Mexico, through the instrumentality of 
the Jamaica negroes, who are to be found scattered in small settle- 
ments through these regions. England has in numerous instances 
acquired territory by the vigor and loyalty of these pioneers of her 
power, and enjoys an almost absolute monopoly of commerce in those 
countries by the energy of this despised race. 

At the moment that we see the colored races thus resuming sw^ay 
in all these regions cut off from European dependance, it is not less 
instructive to observe the effort which it requires to maintain the as- 
cendancy of the white race in Cuba and in British India. It requires 
an army of thirty thousand men to maintain the Spanish dominion in 
Cuba, and that force itself must be constantly recruited 'from Spain. 
Great Britain holds her Indian possessions by means of an enormous 
army, the larger part of which, it is true, is composed of Sepoy or 
native soldiers; but it requires a stream of English blood to be poured 
into India, as great almost and as constant as the flood of the Ganges, 
to enable her to preserve that empire. Yet Spain finds it profitable, 
in a revenue point of view, to maintain her power in Cuba at the 
cost of this vast expenditure of life and treasure, and indispensable 
in order to furnish a market for the productions of the mother coun- 
try. It is believed that the mere governmental expenses of India 
have always entailed a loss on the British exchequer, and this ex- 
penditure of money, accompanied with a far more serious drain on 
the vigor and life of English people, is considered as well compen- 
sated by the life which the markets of India impart to British com- 
merce and manufacture. 

How fortunate would Spain or Great Britain deem themselves if 
they prossessed such a race of men as our American negroes with 



24 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



whom to propogate their power and influence in this country of fabu- 
lous wealth and infinite beauty — a country lying within reach of our 
outstretched arms, courting our embrace, and panting to repay our 
protection with all its lavish charms. England does not hesitate to 
promote the productiveness of the few fragments of earth she pos- 
sesses in these regions to bring the wretched coolies from the far olf 
antipodes, and Spain submits to be the last nation of Christendom to 
encourage that "opprobrium of the infidel powers," the African 
slave trade, in order to supply the waste of labor in the Island of 
Cuba. Our American negroes surpass in skill and intelligence all the 
other colored races of the world as much as the American tropics sur- 
pass all other regions in natural wealth and productiveness. They 
possess that mysterious quality of organism which makes its torrid 
glare — so fatal to all other men — to them the very elixir of life and 
health. They have been instructed in agriculture and the mechanic 
arts; they have learned our language, our religion, and have become 
familiarized with our customs, which forms the body of our law and 
science of government, by long contact with our people. And when 
to this is added a natural docility of temper and subordination to au- 
thority, no one should doubt their capacity to maintain a free and in- 
dependent government under the guidance and patronage of our re- 
public; especially should such doubts give way when we have before 
our eyes such examples of their ability for self-government as they 
have furnished in Liberia and Ha^^ti. But if further testimony should 
be demanded, they can point with a just pride to the letter of Earl 
Grey to Lord John Russel, in speaking of the various transplantations 
made for the improvement of the Island of Trinidad, in which he 
uses this remarkable language : 

" Steps have also been taken, within the last two years, for procuring immi- 
grants of a far more valuable description than those from India. I refer to the 
free black and colored inhabitants of the United States. These people are 
regarded as an encumbrance, and their presence is considered a most serious evil 
in the States which they now inhabit, while there can be no doubt that many of 
them would be the best possible settlers who could be introduced into Trmidad. 
Speaking the English, with habits of industry and of civilized life, and well 
adapted by their constitution to the climate, there seems to be no reason to doubt 
the success of black and colored immigrants from the United States. Provided 
a proper selection is made of the individuals to be brought, their introduction 
could not fail to be of the highest value to the colony, not only from the actual 
accession of its population, which would be thus obtained, but from the example 
which they would afford to its present inhabitants. Such an addition to the 
existing population of Trinidad would have a tendency to raise the whole com- 
munity in the scale of civilization; whereas, there is precisely the opposite ten- 
dency with respect to immigration from almost any other quarter, and this is no 
slight drawback to the advantage to be obtained from it." 

In treating the question of the vast commercial importance of 
founding colonies of enfranchised slaves in the intertropical regions of 
America, it may not be out of place to recur to the relations we once 
held Avith these countries. At the period of the independence of the 
Spanish-American states, as they caught the fire of freedom from 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



25 



our example, so they also followed our lead in the forms of govern- 
ment which they established, and their feelings of enthusiastic admi- 
ration for the great American republic drew them into the closest 
commercial relations with this country. As an illustration of the 
enormous value of this traffic, it is worthy of being mentioned that 
almost the entire export of silver bullion centered at the city of New 
Orleans, and lead to the establishment of the mint at that place, and 
what was perhaps of greater importance, a system of banking secured 
by the precious metal, which has given it a solidity and character far 
above that which has generally obtained in this country. This 
bullion traffic has for many years been in the hands of the English, 
and, as a consequence, English manufacturers have superseded ours 
to a very great extent in the Mexican markets. So with respect to 
the other Spanish-American states, and the other products of those 
states. The lucrative commerce which we once enjoyed with them 
has almost entirely ceased. Colonel Benton, who of all our states- 
men was most familiar with these subjects, stated, in a public speech, 
that, if the government had cherished this valuable interest, the com- 
merce of these nations would amply compensate the loss of the entire 
" southern trade,'' as the traffic of our great manufacturing districts 
with the cotton States has sometimes been called. 

Many causes have conspired to deprive us of this once most profit- 
able intercourse with the Spanish- American republics, of which it 
will be necessary to mention the most prominent, in order that it may 
be seen if it is possible now to correct them. 

The first of these is the anarchy which has followed the ever 
recurring revolutions in many of these countries, by which produc- 
tion, the very source of commerce, has been depressed and destroyed. 
And second, the indifference displayed by our government towards all 
these republics, arising from our maxims against interference in the 
affairs of foreign nations, which, however, finally gave place to a 
policy aggressive and most ofiensive to these republics, under the 
lead of our recent slavery propagandist and fillibuster administration. 
We contrived first to cool the ardor of their enthusiasm for the great 
republic of the north by total neglect and indifference, when perhaps 
our friendly ofiices would have served to sustain their struggling 
people against the intrigues of ambition, fomented by monarchists, to 
bring republics into disrepute. And finally we succeeded in alienating 
them by waging war to wrest from them vast provinces, to be planted 
with slavery, and sent forth our fillibusters to harass and annoy them 
even when at peace with their governments. Is it surprising that 
they transferred their good will, and with it their commercial inter- 
course, to other nations ? The time has come when we shoidd arrest 
the disorders which have torn these countries, and also the ill-feeling 
which has grown up between the other republics of this continWt 
and our own. The time has come, and w^th it events most propitious 
for the accomplishment of purposes so full of good omen to us and to 
them. Events in our own country have brought to an end the vile 
policy of slavery propagandism to which our power has so long 



26 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



been perverted, and which made all the colored races of the tropics 
regard us with a just detestation and fear, because they could not 
misunderstand the object which inspired those who inaugurated and 
maintained that policy, and which was to include them in an empire 
to be founded on the slavery of the colored races. Other events 
have taken place which have taught the Spanish-American states 
that they have another danger to dread in European design to erect 
thrones upon this continent for the scions of European loyalty, to be 
supported by European bayonets as a means of composing the terri- 
torial disputes and dynastic schemes of Europe, and at the same time 
to make the teeming wealth of America subservient to their commer- 
cial necessities. This design, made palpable by the recent tripartite 
invasion of Mexico by France, England, and Spain, can only be frus- 
trated by our power, and this has been made manifest to the intended 
victims of this policy by the fact that the moment of our trouble 
has been seized upon to put it into execution. When, therefore, 
w^e shall be called upon to deliver Mexico and her kindred repub- 
lics from this European conspiracy, we shall have purged our- 
selves of the suspicion of designs no less odious and detestable. 
These events will place the United States at the head of a grand 
confederacy of American republics, will restore the good feeling 
and confidence which once prevailed, and confer commercial ad- 
vantages more valuable and important to us than England derives 
from her vast colonies, and without the trouble and expense of armies 
to hold and protect them. To accomplish this, it will only be neces- 
sary to offer our friendly offices and guidance, instead of the indiffer- 
ence and neglect with which we have treated their disorders and mis- 
fortunes. It is our interest as much as theirs to protect them against 
the policy which seeks to transfer the feuds of European dynasties to 
this continent. They need also our moral support against those am- 
bitious chieftains whose restless struggles have been instigated from 
Europe, in order that it might appear that stability in govern- 
ment under republican institutions was impossible, and thus prepare 
the way for their ulterior designs. They need our assistance to or- 
ganize their own strength for the maintenance of domestic tran- 
quility, and to repel aggression. They need our example of moder- 
ation and magnanimity, to which the good men among them can point 
to encourage their people to perseverance, and as a refutation to the 
slanders of the enemies of free institutions. 

The first step in this direction is to give back to the tropics its 
own children, who will carry wdth them the native vigor and endur- 
ance to withstand the climate, united with habits of labor, skill, and 
knowledge acquired here, to give a new impulse to industry, and 
stability to their governments. They will carry Avith them also the 
pledge of the protection of this republic, which will secure them a 
cordial welcome from every republican state on the continent. These 
are not novel views, now for the first time broached to the public, 
but, on the contrary, they have been well considered by thoughtful 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



27 



and sagacious men, and often put forward, but at a period when 
other and less worthy designs occupied and controlled this govern- 
ment. In a paper which appeared in the Westminster Review several 
years ago, marked by the editor with an unusual notification, ascrib- 
ing it "to an able and distinguished contributor," and which 
described the missions of the "four empires — France, Russia, G-reat 
Britain, and the United States" — there appear the following sen 
tences, which show that these thoughts are familiar to some of the 
statesmen of England : 

" In spite of Clayton-Buhver treaties, and Dallas-Clarendon interpretations 
of them, the United States will stretch their shadow ever further south. Revo- 
lution will cease to tear the empire of Montezuma. The falling republics of 
Central America will not forever be a temptation, by their weakness, to the 
attacks of lawless ruffians. The valley of the mighty Amazon, which would 
grow corn enough to feed a thousand million mouths, must fall at last to those 
who will force it to yield its treasures." 

This "manifest destiny/' which, when perverted to the purposes 
of our late fillibuster administrations, become so detestable, has re- 
ceived a higher and nobler interpretation from some of the best and 
most sagacious American journalists. The following article, which 
appeared in the New York Tribune, in June or July, 1857, shadows 
forth so fully and clearly the ideas we have attempted to recom- 
mend for adoption, that we cannot refrain from appealing to the aid 
of its clear and conclusive statements: 

" It is an unquestionable fact, not only that the torrid zone embraces an ex- 
tent of territory capable of cultivation far exceeding that of all the rest of the 
world put together, but also that the resources of this wealthy region — in- 
cluding on the western continent vast tracts of territory remaining as yet in a 
state of nature — have hardly as yet begun to be developed. 

" The first great requisite for the extension of civilization and of the ideas 
and industry of enlightened Europe and North America into these regions is to 
find a body of men to be the apostles and disseminators of these ideas, able to 
withstand the climate. The extension of the Caucasian race, so called, into 
these climes, to displace the present inhabitants, or to fill up the countries now 
uninhabited, must be given up as not feasible. Within the torrid zone, except 
upon high table-lands brought by their elevation above the ocean level into the 
range of temperate climates, the Caucasian race cannot for any length of time 
propagate itself. It is only in these exceptional regions that even the Spanish 
colonists of the two Americas, though drawn from a semi-tropical climate, have 
been able to increase or even to maintain their numbers. Throughout the West 
India islands, if we except Cuba, into which a very recent flood of white emi- 
gration on a large scale has been poured, tlie whites, in spite of constant acces- 
sions from Europe, have been unable to keep up their numbers. 

" The negro race, on the contrary, is perfectly well adapted to this tropical 
climate, and luxuriates in it ; and it is through the agency of negro labor, and 
exclusively through that agency, that some small part of the American portion 
of the torrid zone has been hitherto brought within the circle of civilized indus- 
try. Of this negro race, seemingly predestined by Providence, after contact 
with the Caucasian races, to a higher development, a very large section is under 
the immediate tuition and influence of the people of the United States. 

" Already as much Christians as ourselves, year after year they adopt more 
and more our ideas, language, habits. 



28 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



"Now, it is obvious tliat in tliis great body of civilized negroes, we have, if 
we did but know liow to use them, and were wiUing to do so, a most poAverful 
and essential instrument toward extending ourselves, as it were — our ideas, our 
civilization, our commerce, industry and political institutions — through all the 
American torrid zone. Instead, however, of making the most of this great 
instrumentality toward bringing within our grasp these vast regions upon which 
we have fixed such covetous glances, we set to work, as it were, to cut off our 
own fingers. 

"And what makes our policy in this matter the more absurd and suicidal is, 
that Great Britain, of whose designs upon the tropics the south evinces so great 
a jealousy, has adopted precisely the opposite course. She, too, has, in her 
"West India colonies and elsewhere, a considerable section of the negro race 
under her immediate control ; and, as if Avell aware of the great field which the 
uninhabited tropical regions present, and of the impossibility of occupying that 
field except through negro agency, she has set herself zealously to work by 
liberating and educating the negroes, and by acknowledging those under her 
jurisdiction as British subjects, with all the rights and privileges of Englishmen, 
to create for herself a body of black Englishmen, who, along with the education, 
intelligence, skill, self-esteem, self-reliance, and English ideas generally, of their 
white fellow-subjects, will possess also the capacity of enduring tropical climates, 
such as does not belong to the races of the temperate zones." 

A correspondent of the New York " Courier and Inquirer," July 
23, 1857, speaks to the same point. He says : 

" But the great consideration is that which men appear resolved to conceal 
from themselves. It is, that this negro race must necessarily take posses- 
sion of the tropical regions on this continent and the islands adjacent, to which 
they may be transported. They will expel the whites by the same law of na- 
ture which has given the blacks exclusive possession of corresponding latitudes 
in Africa. The white man has not been able to subplant and absorb even the 
Indians of the tropics. From the borders of Mexico to the south line of Brazil, 
the Indian remains the remaining type of mankind. And it is the negro and his 
mongrel modifications which are gaining upon the copper-colored." 

" In the eventualities of the future, Ave may hope that the southern States of 
our Union may desire to relieve themselves of the pressure of slavery. In that 
<iase, the West Indies and the northern portion of South America will be the 
natural and fit receptable of their freedom. It is therefore of the highest im- 
portance that these regions should be kept open for that contingency." 

It is worthy of remark that the negroes of our country have them- 
selves had this subject in their thoughts. In 1857 a delegate con- 
vention of these people held its sessions at Cleveland, Ohio, and after 
deliberation and debate, marked by knowledge and ability, they 
passed resolutions and issued an address in favor of the colonization 
in the American tropics, to which their instincts pointed as their fu- 
ture home, and to which their hopes beckoned them to become the 
founders of empire. Experience, painful and sad, had convinced 
them that here they would forever remain an inferior caste, denied 
every right which distinguishes or gives value to personal freedom, 
while the conviction that the torrid zone, their natural organiza- 
tion fitting them to endure its climate, where fervid heat enervates 
and emasculates all other races, gave the best guarantee against the 
"degradations with which they had been afflicted. 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



29 



There is scarcely a motive which impels human action that does 
not conspire to the execution of this policy. Justice, humanity, and 
hope invite us to undertake it; the bitter recollections of the past, 
the sufferings of to-day, and every noble aspiration of the heart and 
mind combine to recommend it. Those who believe the negro will 
not embrace it must in their hearts believe that the race is unfit for 
freedom and will be content to remain in a country in every part of 
which they are denied those social, civil, and political rights with- 
out Avhich there is no absolute freedom and none which can satisfy 
the heart of a man capable of appreciating its blessings. 

There are, perhaps, those who are much disposed to underrate the 
value of colonies of our free blacks to our commerce. The following 
extracts from a work compiled by the State Department, under the 
authority of Congress, upon the subject of our commercial relations, 
(vol. 1, p. 570,) will disclose a state of facts tending to correct this 
opinion: 

" Among the countries with which the United States have commercial inter- 
course, Hayti holds the ninth rank as respects tonnage. All the States are 
more or less interested in the Haytien trade. The northeastern States find a 
market there for their fish and other merchandise. Pennsylvania, northern Vir- 
ginia, Maryland, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, for their salted pork ; 
Vemiont, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Ohio, for their salted beef ; 
Philadelphia and Boston, North and South Carolina, Virginia and Kentucky, 
for their household furniture, their rice and tobacco. The manufacturers of 
New England, New York, and Pennsylvania, have already secured an entensive 
market in Hayti for their cheap cotton textures, and successfully compete with 
European manufacturers. The official returns of the United States show that 
Mexico, with a population of 8,000,000, imported from the diff'erent ports of the 
Union, in 1851, less by $350,596 than Hayti. The trade of the United States 
with the latter country is therefore more profitable than with Mexico. Indeed, 
American vessels generally return in ballast from Mexican ports, or go to other 
States in search of freight, while in Hayti they always find cargoes. * * * 
In 1851 the United States exported to Hayti cotton goods valued at $296,000 
while the value of similar goods exported to Cuba reach only $26,000. The 
soap exported from the United States to the former country (Hayti) exceeded 
1,928,082 pounds, to the latter (Cuba) only 289,748. Hayti received from the 
United States in 1851 eight times as much flour as Cuba, and six times as much 
salted pork." 

The writer adds these pregnant sentences : 

" Notwithstanding the United States has not recognized the independence of 
Hayti, nor entered into any treaty with its government, the restrictions and 
petty annoyances to which our merchants and citizens in that country have 
heretofore been subjected are now removed, and the fruits of this more liberal 
and friendly feeling are witnessed in our annually-increasing commerce, and in 
the preponderance of, and preference for, American merchandise in the markets 
of Hayti. This liberal state of things may, however, at any moment, change. 
In the absence of a commercial treaty between the two countries, our relations 
with Hayti are dependent on the will or caprice of the emperor. In this re- 
spect France and England are on a safer footing than the United States." 

These statistics should dispose of the objections of those persons 
who contend that the negroes in the tropics will sink into idleness 



30 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



and sloth, and finally relapse into barbarism. No candid man who 
reflects upon the brutal massacre of the entire white population of 
Hayti by the negroes when they first emerged from slavery, and then 
turns his thoughts to the peaceful and bloodless revolution by which, 
after the lapse of three-quarters of a century, the same people ex- 
erted their will in the overthrow of Faustin and the re-establishment 
of the republic under Geffrard, will fail to observe and admit the 
immense progress they have made. Perhaps no people have ever 
made a greater advance in civilization, in the same length of time, 
than is marked by these two epochs in the liistory of Hayti. If the 
latter event does not give them a title to be regarded as a civilized 
people, the progress they have made since that bloody catastrophe 
of their early history should teach us hope and patience. It must 
not be forgotten, moreover, that the labor of the logwood and ma- 
hogany cuttings of Central America (and no labor can be more severe) 
is performed entirely by the free negroes of Jamaica and the black 
Caribs, and that but for these people the Panama railroad would have 
remained unbuilt, every other species of labor having been tried and 
failed. 

Mr. Welles, an American gentleman, a late visitor and a most 
acute observer, has made a report on the condition of Honduras. 
He confirms the general impression in regard to the effete state of 
the Spanish race in Honduras and the other Central American states ; 
the insurrectionary disposition of the Indians and mestizos of mixed 
Indian and Spanish blood, which produces incessant civil war and 
revolution ; and he shows that the African race constitutes the basis 
on which some energetic and intelligent power must build a stable 
structure of free government. The negroes and mulattoes in Hon- 
duras number one hundred and forty thousand ; the Indians one hun- 
dred thousand ; the whites about fifty thousand ; but of this caste he 
remarks, that — 

''ludiscriminate amalgamation has nearly obliterated the former distinction of 
caste, and few families of pure Spanish descent are known. Some of the 
wealthiest merchants of the department of Tegucigalpa are blacks, possessing 
a surprising degree of business tact. Two of the largest commercial houses 
have negro proprietors, whose mercantile relations extend to Europe, whence 
they import most of their goods. Though the great majority of the negroes of 
Honduras are a throughly debased and ignorant class, there are numerous excep- 
tions. The senate and assembly have contained many highly -intelligent blacks 
and mulattoes, thoroughly educated in the Central American school of politics, 
and with sufficient discernment to foresee the decline of their own influence, 
and the power of the negro race, with the introduction of the Teutonic stock. 
Hence their violent opposition to foreign enterprises, in the national councils 
and in their private circles. The clergy are mostly negroes or mestizos. Their 
power for evil has been largely contracted since the independence ; but, with a 
few exceptions, these men exercise rather a favorable influence over the people, 
and are generally respected." 

One of the most practical and efiicient modes for the accomplish- 
ment of the policy recommended will be found in the negotiation of 
reciprocity treaties with the Spanish American states, whenever it 
can be effected, and the establishment of lines of mail steamers be- 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



31 



tween our ports and the most important ports of the Carribean sea 
and the two oceans, to afford facilities for the colonization of the 
enfranchized blacks and for the renewal of commerce. The estab- 
lishment of these lines might be offered as an inducement to make 
reciprocity treaties, and would not fail to be accepted as marking the 
inauguration of an enlarged and literal policy, and would accomplish 
more for our country, in securing the commerce of a continent, than 
could be exorted by violence and injustice. 

It has been justly said that "the policy of commerce and not of 
conquest w^as the true policy of the United States.'' To give effect 
to this no national effort has ever been made by. our government, and 
all that has been attained has been through the energy and enterprise 
of individuals. It is not unreasonable to expect that the government 
should at length enter upon the performance of duties which are of 
such vital interest to the nation, and which are beyond the power 
and control of any of its citizens. It w^ould seem that the two conti- 
nents of America were fashioned, by the hand of nature, to become 
the seats of two empires, and to supply each others wants by an in- 
terchange of productions. The difference of climate and production 
indicates that, which is also established by existing facts, these 
continents are to be peopled and possessed by different races of men. 
The population of Central and South America and the islands of the 
Gulf, which, in 1840, was estimated at 25,000,000, consisted of three 
and a half millions of the pure white race and twenty-one and a half 
millions of the colored races. In North America the preponderance 
of the white races over the colored races is in nearly the same pro- 
portion. Thus, whilst the difference of climate and production and 
the races of men that occupy them seem to be designed to promote 
this benificent intercourse, the very configuration of the earth and 
the rivers which form the natural channels of commerce also invite 
it. The great Mississippi, flowing from the furthest north, and drain- 
ing the whole central basin of this continent, pours out its wealth 
into the lap of the tropics. The Oronoco and the Amazon, with still 
more lavish tides, flow from the opposite direction, through regions 
of vaster wealth, and all unite in that "river in the ocean/' as the 
Gulf stream has been called, which pours its floods along the face of 
both continents. Thus nature has provided the heart and the arteries 
of an interchanging commerce, whose pulsations may be felt in the 
remotest extremity. 

Your committee herewith report the following bill : 



32 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



A BILL granting the aid of the United States to certain States, upon the adoption by them 
of a system of emancipation, and to provide for the colonization of free negroes. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled, That whenever the President 
of the United States shall be satisfied that any one of the States of 
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, or Missouri 
shall have emancipated the slaves therein by law within and through- 
out such State, it shall be the duty of the President, assisted by the 
Secretary of the Treasury, to prepare and deliver to such State an 
amount of bonds of the United States, bearing interest at the rate of 
five per centum per annum and payable at thirty years from the date 
thereof, equal to the aggregate value of all the slaves within such 
State, at the rate of three hundred dollars for each slave, as the same 
shall be ascertained by an enumeration to be made by the federal 
authorities designated for that purpose, at the time of emancipation 
the whole amount for any one State to be delivered at once, if the 
emancipation shall be immediate, or in rateable instalments if it shall 
be gradual: Provided, That no State shall make any compensation 
to the owner of any slave who shall be proven to have willingly en- 
gaged in or in any manner aided the present rebellion, or who at any 
time may have accepted and held any office, either civil, naval, or 
militar}', under the so-called Confederate States of America, or under 
the State government of any one of said Confederate States, and shall 
have Avillingly taken the oath of allegiance to said so-called Con- 
federate States: And provided, further, That, in the enumeration of 
said slaves, as aforesaid, no slave shall be computed who shall have 
been brought into the State so emancipating, as aforesaid, from any 
other State or country after the passage of this act. 

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the 
whole amount of bonds so to be made and delivered, as aforesaid, 
shall not exceed in the aggregate the sum of one hundred and eighty 
millions of dollars. 

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That 
for the purpose of deporting, colonizing, and settling the slaves so 
emancipated, as aforesaid, in some state, territory, or dominion 
beyond the limits of the United States, the sum of twenty millions of 
dollars is hereby appropriated, out of any moneys in the treasury not 
otherwise appropriated, to be expended for the purposes aforesaid, at 
the discretion of the President. 

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That 
the benefits of this act shall only inure to such State or States as may 
pass such act or acts of emancipation, as aforesaid, within five years 
from the date of the passage of this act, and shall provide for the com- 
plete and entire emancipation of the slaves therein within the period of 
twenty years from the date of the passage of said State act or acts. 

Sec. 5. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid. That if 
any State shall at any time after having received any such bonds, as 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



33 



aforesaid, by law introduce or tolerate slavery ^v^ithin its limits, con- 
trary to the act of emancipation npon Avhich such bonds shall have 
been received, such State shall refund to the United States all the 
principal and interest which may have been paid on any such bonds. 

All of which is respectfully submitted. 

A. S. WHITE, 

Of Indiana. 
F. P. BLAIR, Jr., 

Of MissoiiTi. 
GEO. P. FISHER, 

Of Delatoare. 
WM. E. LEHMAN, 

Of Fermsylvania. 
K. Y. WHALEY, 

Of Virginia. 
S. L. CASEY, 

Of Kentucky. 
A. J. CLEMENS, 

Of Tennessee. 

I have had no opportunity of reading the foregoing report, but, 
without expressing an opinion upon its merits, concur in presenting 
it to the House. 

C. L. L. LEARY, 

0/ Maryland. 



H. Rep. Com. 148 3 



i 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



35 



APPEJfDIX. 



No. 1. 

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES IN RELATION TO 
CO-OPERATING WITH ANY STATE FOR THE GRADUAL ABOLISHMENT OF 
SLAVERY. 

Fellow-citizens cf the Senate and House of Kepresentatives : 

I recommend the adoption of a joint resolution by your honorable bodies, 
which shall be substantially as follows : 

Resolved, That the United States ought to co-operate with any State which 
may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid, 
to be used by such State in its discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, 
public and private, produced by such change of system." 

If the proposition contained in the resolution does not meet the approval of 
Congress and the country, there is the end; but if it does command such ap- 
proval, I deem it of importance that the States and people immediately interested 
should be at once distinctly notified of the fact, so that they may begin to con- 
sider whether to accept or reject it. The federal government would find its 
highest interest in such a measure, as one of the most efficient means of self- 
preservation. The leaders of the existing insurrection entertain the hope that 
this government will ultimately be forced to acknowledge the independence of 
some part of the disaffected region, and that all the slave States north of such 
part will then say, " The Union for which we have struggled being already 
gone, we now choose to go with the southern section." To deprive them of this 
hope substantially ends the rebellion; and the initiation of emancipation com- 
pletely deprives them of it as to all the States initiating it. The point is not 
that all the States tolerating slavery would very soon, if at all, initiate emanci- 
pation, but that while the offer is equally made to all, the more northern shall, 
by such initiation, make it certain to the more southern that in no event will the 
former ever join the latter in their proposed confederacy. I say "initiation," 
because in my judgment gradual, and not sudden, emancipation is better for all. 
In the mere financial or pecuniary vicAV, any member of Congress, with the 
census tables and treasury reports before him, can readily see for himself how 
very soon the current expenditures of this war would purchase, at fair valua- 
tion, all the slaves in any named State. Such a proposition on the part of the 
general government sets up no claim of a right by federal authority to interfere 
with slavery within State limits, referring, as it does, the absolute control of the 
subject in each case to the State and its people immediately interested. It is 
proposed as a matter of perfectly free choice with them. 

In the annual message last December I thought fit to say "the Union must 
be preserved ; and hence all indispensable means must be employed." I said 
this not hastily, but deliberately. War has been made, and continues to be, an 
indispensable means to this end. A practical reacknowledgment of the na- 
tional authority would render the war unnecessary, and it would at once cease. 
If, however, resistance continues, the war must also continue; and it is impos- 
sible to foresee all the incidents which may attend and all the ruin whicli may 
follow it. Such as may seem indispensable, or may obviously promise great 
efficiency towards ending the struggle, must and will come. 

The proposition now made, though an offer only, I hope it may be esteemed 
no offence to ask whether the pecuniary consideration tendered would not be ot 



36 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



more value to the States and private persons concerned than are the institution 
and property in it, in the present aspect of affairs'? 

While it is true that the adoption of the proposed resolution would be merely 
initiatory, and not within itself a practical measure, it is recommended in the 
hope that it would soon lead to important practical results. In full view of 
my great responsibility to my God and to my country, I earnestly beg the at- 
tention of Congress and the people to the subject. 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Washington, March 6, 1862. 



JOINT EESOLUTION declaring that the United States ought to co-operate with, affording 
pecuniary aid to, any State which may adopt the gradual abolishment of slavery. 

Be it resolved hy the Senate and House of Kejpresentatives of the United 
States of A^nei'ica in Congress assembled, That the United States ought to 
co-operate with any State which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, 
giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State in its discretion,, 
to compensate for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such 
change of system. 

Approved April 10, 1862. 



No. 2. 

MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, TRANSMITTING A DRAFT 
OF A BILL TO COMPENSATE ANY STATE WHICH MAY ABOLISH SLAVERY 
WITHIN ITS LIMITS, AND RECOMMENDING ITS PASSAGE. 

Fellow-citizens of the Senate and House of liepresentatives : 
Herewith is a draft of a bill to compensate any State which may abolish 
slavery within its limits, the passage of which, substantially as presented, I 
respectfully and earnestly recommend. 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

July 14, 1862. 



A BILL providing for the payment of persons held to service or labor liberated by any 

State. 

Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled, That whenever the President of the 
United States shall be satisfied that any State shall have lawfully abolished 
slavery within and throughout such State, either immediately or gradually, it 
shall be the duty of the President, assisted by the Secretary of the Treasury, 
to prepare and deliver to such State an amount of six per cent, interest-bearing 

bonds of the United States, equal to the aggregate value, at $ dollars per 

head, of all the slaves within such State, as reported by the census of the 
year one thousand eight hundred and sixty ; the whole amount for any one 
State to be delivered at once, if the abolishment be immediate, or in equal 
annual instalments, if it be gradual ; interest to begin running on each bond at 
the time of its delivery, and not before. 

And be it further enacted. That if any State, having so received any such 
bonds, shall, at any time afterwards, by law reintroduce or tolerate slavery 
within its limits, contrary to the act of abolishment upon which ,such bonds 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



37 



shall have been received, said bonds so received by said State shall at once be 
null and void in whosesoever hands they may be, and such State shall refund 
to the United States all interest which may have been paid on such bonds. 



. No. 3. 

ADDRESS ISSUED BY A NATIONAL EMIGRATION CONVENTION OF COLORED 
PEOPLE HELD AT CLEVELAND, OHIO, AUGUST 24, 1854.— WRITTEN BY M. R. 
DELANY, ONE OP THEIR NUMBER. 

POLITICAL DESTINY OF THE COLORED RACE ON THE AMERICAN CONTINENT. 

To the colored inhahitants of the United States. 

Fellow-Oountrymen ; The duty assigned us is an important one, com- 
prehending all that pertains to our destiny and that of our posterity — present 
and prospectively. And while it must be admitted that the subject is one of 
the greatest magnitude, requiring all that talents, 23rudence and wisdom might 
adduce, and while it would be folly to pretend to give you the combined re- 
sult of these three agencies, we shall satisfy ourselves with doing our duty to 
the best of our ability, and that in the plainest, mxost simple and comprehensive 
manner. 

Our object, then, shall be to place before you our true position in this coun- 
try — the United States — the improbability of realizing our desires, and the sure, 
practicable and infallible remedy for the evils we now endure. 

We have not addressed you as citizens — a term desired and ever cherished 
by us — because such you have never been. We have not addressed you as 
freeynen — because such privileges have never been enjoyed by any colored man 
in the United States. Why then should we flatter your credulity, by inducing 
you to believe that which neither has now, nor never before had an existence. 
Our oppressors are ever gratified at our manifest satisfaction, especially when 
that satisfaction is founded upon false premises ; an assumption on our part of 
the enjoyment of rights and privileges which never have been conceded, and 
which, according to the present system of the United States policy, we never 
can enjoy. 

The political policy of this country was solely borrowed from, and shaped 
and modeled after, that of Rome. This was strikingly the case in the estab- 
lishment of immunities, and the application of terms in their civil and legal 
regulations. 

The term citizen — politically considered — is derived from the Roman defi- 
nition — which was never applied in any other sense — cives ingenui, which 
meant one exempt from restraint of any kind. ( Gives, a citizen ; one who might 
enjoy the highest honors in his own free town — the town in which he lived — and 
in the country or commonwealth; and ingenui, freehorn — of GOOD extraction.) 
All who were deprived of citizenship — that is, the right of enjoying positions 
of honor and trust — were termed hostes and peregrini; which are public and 
private enemies, and foreigners, or aliens to the country. (Hostis, a public, 
and sometimes private, enemy ; and peregrinus, an alien, stranger, or foreigner^ 

The Romans, from a national pride, to distinguish their inhabitants from those 
of other countries, termed them all "citizens," but consequently were under 
the necessity of specifying four classes of citizens , none but the cives ingenui 
being unrestricted in their privileges. There was one class, called \h^jus quiritium, 
or the wailing or supplicating citizen — that is, one who was continually moan- 
ing, complaining, or crying for aid or succor. This class might also include 
within themselves the j^^,s suffragii, who had the privilege of voting, but no 



38 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



other privilege. They could vote for one of their superiors — the cives ingcnui — 
but not for themselves. 

Such, then, is the condition, precisely, of the black and colored inhabitants 
of the United States ; in some of the States they answering to the latter class, 
having the privilege of voting, to elevate their superiors to positions to which 
they need never dare aspire, or even hope to attain. 

There has, of late years, been a false impression obtained, that the privilege 
of voting constitutes, or necessarily embodies, the rights of citizenship. A 
more radical error never obtained favor among an oppressed people. Suffrage 
is an ambiguous term, which admits of several definitions ; but according to 
strict political construction means simply "a vote, voice, approbation." Here, 
then, you have the whole import of the term suffrage. To have the "right of 
suffrage," as we rather proudly term it, is simply to have the privilege — there 
is no right about it — of giving our approbation to that which our rulers may do, 
without the privilege, on our part, of doing the same thing. Where such priv- 
ileges are granted — privileges which are now exercised in but few of the States 
by colored men — we have but the privilege granted of saying, in common with 
others, who shall, for the time being, exercise rights which, in him, are con- 
ceded to be inherent and inviolahle. Like the indented apprentice, who is sum- 
moned to give his approbation to an act which would be fully binding without 
his concurrence. Where there is no acknowledged sovereignty there can be no 
binding power; hence the suffrage of the black man, independently of the white, 
would be in this country unavailable. 

Much might be adduced on this j)oint to prove the insignificance of the black 
man, politically considered in this country, but we deem it wholly unnecessary 
at present, and consecjuently proceed at once to consider another feature of this 
important subject. 

Let it tlienbe understood, as a great principle of political economy, that no people 
can be free who themselves do not constitute an essential part of the ruling ele- 
ment of the country in which they live. W^hether this element be founded 
upon a true or false, a just or an unjust basis, this position in community is neces- 
sary to personal safety. The liberty of no man is secure Avho controls not his 
own political destiny. What is true of an individual is true of a family; and 
that which is true of a family is also true concerning a whole people. To sup- 
pose otherAvise is that delusion Avhich at once induces its A^ctim, through a period 
of long suffering, patiently to submit to CA^ery species of Avrong; trusting against 
probability, and hoping against all reasonable grounds of expectation, for the 
granting of priA'ileges and enjoyment of rights which ncA^er Avill be attained. 
This delusion reveals the true secret of the poAver AAdiich holds in peaceable 
subjection all the oppressed in every part of the Avorld. 

A people to be free must necessarily be their oicn rulers: that is, each indi- 
vidMol must in himself embody the essential ingredient, so to speak, of the 
sovereign p)rincip)le Avhich composes the true basis of his liberty. This principle, 
Avlien not exercised by himself, may at his pleasure be delegated to another, his 
true representative. 

Said a great French Avriter : "A free agent, in a free government, should be his 
OAsm governor;" that is, he must possess within himself the achnoidedged right to 
govern : this constitutes him a governor, though he may delegate to another the 
power to govern himself. 

No one, then, can delegate to another a poAver he never possessed ; that is, he 
cannot give an agency in that in Avhich he ncA^er had a right. Consequently, the 
colored man in the United States, being deprived of the rights of inherent sove- 
reignty, cannot confer a suffrage, because he possesses none to confer. There- 
fore, where there is no suflrage there can neither hefreedorn nor scfety for the 
disfranchised ; and it is a futile hope to suppose that the agent of another's con- 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



39 



cerns will take a proper interest in the affairs of those to whom he is under no 
obligations. Having no fjivors to ask or expect, he therefore has none to lose. 

In other periods and parts of the world, as in Europe and Asia, the people 
being' of one common, direct origin of race, though established on the presump- 
tion of difference by birth, or what was termed blood, yet the distinction be- 
tween the superior classes and common people could only be marked by the 
difference in the dress and education of the two classes. To effect this the 
interposition of government was necessary ; consequently, the costume and edu- 
cation of the people became a subject of legal restriction, guarding carefully 
against the privileges of the common people. 

In Rome, the patrician and plebeian were orders in the ranks of her people — 
all of whom were termed citizens ( cives ) — recognized by the laws of the coun- 
try, their dress and education being determined by law, the better to fix the 
distinction. In different parts of Europe at the present day, if not the same, 
the distinction among the people is similar, only on a modified, and, in some 
kingdoms, probably more tolerant or deceptive policy. 

In the United States, our degTadation being once — as it has in a hundred in- 
stances been done — legally determined, our color is sufiicient, independently of 
costume, education, or other distinguishing marks, to keep up that distinction. 

In Europe, when an inferior is elevated to the rank of equality v/ith the 
superior class, the law first comes to his aid, which, in its decrees, entirely de- 
stroys his identity as an inferior, leaving no trace of his former condition visible. 

In the United States, among the whites, their color is made, by law and cus- 
tom, the mark of distinction and superiority; while the color of the blacks is a 
badge of degradation, acknowledged by statute, organic law, and the common 
consent of the people. 

With this view of the case — which we hold to be correct — to elevate to 
equality the degraded subject of law and custom, it can only be done, as in 
Europe, by an entire destruction of the identity of the former condition of the 
applicant. Even were this desirable — which we by no means admit — with the 
deep-seated prejudices engendered by oppression with which we have to con- 
tend, ages incalculable might reasonably be expected to roll aromid before this 
could honorably be accomplished; otherwise we should encourage and at once 
commence an indiscriminate concubinage and immoral commerce of our mothers, 
sisters, wives, and daughters, revolting to think of, and a physical curse to 
humanity. 

If this state of things be to succeed, then, as in Egypt, under the dread of the 
inscrutable approach of the destroying angel, to appease the hatred of our oppres- 
sors, as a license to the passions of every white, let the lintel of each door of 
every black man be stained with the blood of virgin purity and unsullied matron 
fidelity. Let it be written along the cornice in capitals, " The tcill of the white 
man is the rule of my household." Remove the protection to our chambers and 
nurseries, that the places once sacred may henceforth become the unrestrained 
resort of the vagrant and rabble, always provided that the licensed commissioner 
of lust shall wear the indisputable impress of a wliite. skin. 

But we have fully discovered and comprehended the great political disease 
with which we are affected, the cause of its origin and continuance ; and what 
is now left for us to do is to discover and apply a sovereign remedy — a healing- 
balm to a sorely diseased body — a wrecked but not entirely shattered system. 
We propose for this disease a remedy. That remedy is emigration. This emi- 
gration should be well advised, and like remedies applied to remove the disease 
from the physical system of man, skilfully and carefully applied, within the 
proper time, du-ected to operate on that part of the system whose greatest ten- 
dency shall be to benefit the Avhole. 

Several geographical localities have been named, among which rank the Oan- 
adas. These we do not object to as places of temporary relief, especially to the 
fleeing fugitive — w^hich, like a palliative, soothes for the timebeing the misery — 



40 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



but cannot commend them as permanent places upon which to fix our destiny, 
and that of oxir children who shall come after us. But, in this connexion, we 
would most earnestly recommend to the colored people of the United States 
generally to secure by purchase all of the land they possibly can, while selling 
at low rates, under the British people and government ; as that time may come 
when, like the lands in the United States Territories generally, if not as in Ore- 
gon and some other Territories and States, they may be prevented entirely from 
settling or purchasing them ; the preference being given to the white applicant. 

And here we would not deceive you by disguising the facts that, according 
to political tendency, the Canadas — as all British America — at no very distant 
day, are destined to come into the United States. 

And were this not the case, the odds are against us, because the ruling ele- 
ment there, as in the United States, is, and ever must be, white — the popula- 
tion now standing, in all British America, two and a half millions of whites to 
but forty thousand of the black race ; or sixty-one and a fraction whites to one 
black ! — the difference being eleven times greater than in the United States — so 
that colored people might never hope for anything more than to exist politically 
by mere suffrance — occupying a secondary position to the whites of the Canadas. 
The Yankees from this side of the lakes are fast settling in the Canadas, infus- 
ing, with industrious success, all the malignity and negro hate inseparable from 
their very being, as Christian democrats and American advocates of equality. 

Then, to be successful, our attention must be turned in a direction towards 
those places where the black and colored man comprise, by population, and con- 
stitute, by necessity of numbers, the ruling element of the body politic, and 
where, when occasion shall require it, the issue can be made and maintained on 
this basis; where our political enclosure and national edifice can be reared, 
established, walled, and proudly defended on this great elementary principle of 
original identity. Upon this solid foundation rests the fabric of every substantial 
political structure in the world, which cannot exist without it ; and so soon as a 
people or nation lose their original identity just so soon must that nation or peo- 
ple become extinct. Powerful though they may have been, they must fall. Be- 
cause the nucleus which heretofore held them together becoming extinct, there 
being no longer a centre of attraction or basis for a union of the parts, a dissolu- 
tion must as naturally ensue as the result of the neutrality of the basis of adhesion 
among the particles of matter. 

This is the secret of the eventful downfall of Egypt, Carthage, Eome, and the 
former Grecian states, once so powerful — a loss of original identity, and with it 
a loss of interest in maintaining their fundamental principles of nationality. 

This, also, is the great secret of the present strength of Great Britain, Russia, 
the United States, and Turkey ; and the endurance of the French nation, what- 
ever its strength and power, is attributable only to their identity as Frenchmen. 

And, doubtless, the downfall of Hungary, brave and noble as may be her 
people, is mainly to be attributed to the want of identity of origin, and conse- 
quently a union of interests and purposes. This fact it might not have been 
expected would be admitted by the great Magyar in his thrilling pleas for the 
restoration of Hungary when asking aid, both national and individual, to enable 
him to throw off the ponderous weight placed upon their shoulders by the House 
of Hapsburg. 

Hungary consisted of three distinct "races" — as they call themselves — of 
people, all priding in and claiming rights based on their originality — the Magyars, 
Celts, and Sclaves. On the encroachment of Austria each one of these races — 
declaring for nationality — rose up against the House of Hapsburg, claiming the 
right of self-government premised on their origin. Between the three a compro- 
mise was effected ; the Magyars, being the majority, claimed the precedence. 
They made an effort, but for the want of a unity of interest, an identity of origin, 
the noble Hungarians failed. All know the result. 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



41 



Nor is this the only important consideration. Were we content to remain as 
we are, sparsely interspersed among our white fellow-countrymen, we never 
might be expected to equal them in any honorable or respectable competition for 
a livelihood. For the reason that, according to the customs and policy of the 
country, we for ages Avould be kept in a secondary position, every situation of 
respectability, honor, profit, or trust, either as mechanics, clerks, teachers, jurors, 
councilmen, or legislators, being filled by white men, consequently our energies 
must become paralyzed or enervated for the want of proper encouragement. 

This example upon our children and the colored people generally is perni- 
cious and degrading in the extreme. And how could it otherwise be when they 
see every place of respectability filled and occupied by the whites, they pander- 
ing to their vanity and existing among them merely as a thing of conveniency ? 

Our friends in this and other countries, anxious for our elevation, have for 
years been erroneously urging us to lose our identity as a distinct race, declar- 
ing that Ave were the same as other people, while at the very same time their 
own representatives were traversing the world and propagating the doctrine in 
favor of a universal Anglo-Saxon predominance. The " universal brotherhood, 
so ably and eloquently advocated by that Polyglot Christian apostle (Elihu 
Burritt) of this doctrine, had established as its basis a universal acknowledg- 
ment of the Anglo-Saxon rule. 

The truth is, we are not identical with the Anglo-Saxon or any other race of 
the Caucasian or pure white type of the human family, and the sooner we \.no\f 
and acknowledge this truth the better for ourselves and posterity. 

The English, French, Irish, German, Italian, Turk, Persian, Greek, Jew, and 
all other races have their native or inherent peculiarities, and why not our race '? 
We are not willing, therefore, at all times and under all circumstances, to be 
moulded into various shapes of eccentricity to suit the caprices and conveniences 
of every kind of people. We are not more suitable to everybody than every- 
body is suitable to us ; therefore, no more like other people than others are 
like us. 

We have, then, inherent traits, attributes, so to speak, and native characteris- 
tics peculiar to our race, whether pure or mixed blood, and all that is required 
of us is to cultivate these and develop them in their purity, to make them de- 
sirable and emulated by the rest of the world. 

That the colored races have the highest traits of civilization will not be dis- 
puted. They are civil, peaceable, and religious to a fault. In mathematics, 
sculpture, and architecture, as arts and sciences, commerce and internal improve- 
ments as enterprises, the white race may probably excel ; but in languages, 
oratory, poetry, music, and painting, as arts and sciences, and in ethics, meta- 
physics, theology, and legal jurisprudence ; in plain language, in the true prin- 
ciples of morals, correctness of thought, religion, and law or civil government, 
there is no doubt but the black race will yet instruct the world. 

It would be duplicity longer to disguise the fact that the great issue, sooner 
or later, upon which must be disputed the world's destiny, will be a question of 
black and white ; and every individual will be called upon for his identity with 
one or the other. The blacks and colored races are four-sixths of all the popu- 
lation of the world ; and these people are fast tending to a common cause with 
each other. The white races are but one-third of the population of the globe, 
or one of them to two of us, and it cannot much longer continue that two-thirds 
will passively submit to the universal domination of this one-third. And it is 
notorious that the only progress made in territorial domain in the last three cen- 
turies by the whites has been a usurpation and encroachment on the rights and 
native soil of some of the colored races. 

The East Indies, Java, Sumatra, the Azores, Madeira, Canary, and Cape 
Verde islands; Socotra, Guardafui, and the Isle of France; Algiers, Tunis, 
Tripoli, Barca, and Egypt in the north, Sierra Leone in the west, and Cape 



42 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



Colony in the sontli of Africa, besides many other islands and possessions not 
herein named ; Australia, the Ladrone islands, together with many others of 
Oceanica ; the seizure and appropriation of a great portion of the western con- 
tinent, with all its islands, Avere so many encroachments of the whites upon the 
rights of the colored races. Nor are they yet content, but, intoxicated with 
the success of their career, the Sandwich Islands are now marked out as the 
next booty to be seized in the ravages of their exterminating crusade. 

TVe regret the necessity of stating the fact, but duty compels us to the task, 
that for more than two thousand years the determined aim of the whites has 
been to crush the colored races wherever found. With a determined will, they 
have sought and pursued them in every quarter of the globe. The Anglo-Saxon 
has taken the lead in this work of universal subjugation. But the Anglo-Amer- 
ican stands pre-eminent for deeds of injustice and acts of oppression, unparal- 
leled, perhaps, in the annals of modern history. 

We admit the existence of great and good people in America, England, 
France, and the rest of Europe, who desire a unity of interests among the 
whole human family, of whatever origin or race. 

But it is neither the moralist. Christian, nor philanthropist whom we now 
have to meet and combat, but the politician — the civil engineer and skilful 
economist, who direct and control the machinery which moves forward, with 
mighty impulse, the nations and powers of the earth. We must therefore, if 
possible, meet them on vantage ground, or, at least, with adequate means for 
the conflict. 

Should we encounter an enemy with artillery, a prayer will not stay the 
cannon shot; neither Avill the kind words nor smiles of philanthropy shield his 
spear from piercing us through the heart. We must meet mankind, then, as 
they meet us — prepared for the worst, though we may hope for the best. Our 
submission does not gain for us an increase of friends nor respectability, as the 
white race will only respect those Avho oppose their usurpation, and acknowledge 
as equals those who will not submit to their rule. This may be no new dis- 
covery in political economy, but it certainly is a subject worthy the consider- 
ation of the black race. 

After a due consideration of these facts, as herein recounted, shall we stand 
still and continue inactive, the passive observers of the great events of the 
times and age in which we live ; submitting indifferently to the usurpation, by 
the white race, of every right belonging to the blacks ? Shall the last vestige 
of an opportunity, outside of the continent of Africa, for the national develop- 
ment of our race, be permitted, in consequence of our slothfulness, to elude our 
grasp and fall into the possession of the whites ? This may heaven forbid ! 
May the sturdy, intelligent, Africo-American sons of the western continent 
forbid! 

Longer to remain inactive, it should be borne in mind, may be to give an 
opportunity to despoil us of every right and possession sacred to our existence, 
with which God has endowed us as a heritage on the earth. For let it not be 
forgotten that the white race, who numbers but one of them to two of us, origi- 
nally located in Europe, besides possessing all of that continent, have now got 
hold of a large portion of Asia, Africa, all North America, a portion of South 
America, and all of the great islands of both hemispheres except Paupau or 
New Guinea, inhabited by negroes and Malays, in Oceanica; the Japanese 
islands, peopled and ruled by the Japanese; Madagascar, peopled by negroes, 
near the coast of Africa ; and the Island of Hayti, in the West Indies, peopled 
by as brave and noble descendants of Africa as they who laid the foundation 
of Thebes, or constructed the everlasting pyramids and catacombs of Egypt. 
A people who have freed themselves by the might of their own will, the force 
of their own power, the unfailing strength of their own right arms, and their 
unflinching determination to be free. 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



43 



Let us, tlien, not survive the clisgrace and ordeal of almighty displeasure, of 
two to one, witnessing the universal possession and control by the whites of 
every habitable portion of the earth. For such must inevitably be the case, 
and that, too, at no distant day, if black men do not take advantage of the 
opportunity by grasping hold of those places where chance is in their favor and 
establishing the rights and power of the colored race. 

We must make an issue, create an event, and establish for ourselves a posi- 
tion. This is essentially necessary for oiu' effective elevation as a people, in 
shaping our national development, directhig our destiny, and redeeming ourselves 
as a race. 

If we but determine it shall be so, it ivill be so ; and there is nothing under 
the sun can prevent it. We shall then be but in pursuit of our legitimate claims 
to inherent rights, bequeathed to us by the wnll of Heaven — the endowment of 
God, our common parent. A distinguished economist has truly said: " God has 
implanted in man an infinite progression in the career of improvement. A soul 
capacitated for improvement ought not to be bounded by a tyrant's landmarks." 
This sentiment is just and true, the ap25licatiou of which to our case is adapted 
with singular fitness. 

Having glanced hastily at our present political position in the world gene- 
rally, and the United States in particular — the fundamental disadvantages under 
which we exist, and the improbability of ever attaining citizenship and equality 
of rights in this country — we call your attention next to the places of destina- 
tion to which we shall direct emigration. 

The West Indies, Central and South America, are the countries of our choice, 
the advantages of which shall be made apparent to your entire satisfaction. 

Though we have designated them as countries, they are in fact but one coun- 
try — relatively considered — a part of this, the western continent. 

As now politically divided, they consist of the following classification, each 
group or division placed under its proper national head : 

• 

FRENCH ISLANDS. 

Square miles PopuVn in 1840. 

Guadalupe 

Martinico 

St. Martin, N. part 

Mariegaiante , 

Deseada 

DANISH ISLANDS. 

Santa Cruz 

St. Thomas 

St. John's 

SWEDISH. 

St. Bartholomew 

DUTCH. 

St. Eustatia 

Cura^oa 

St. Martin, S. part 

Saba 

VENEZUELA. 

Margarita 

SPANISH. 

Cuba 

Porto Rico 



675 
260 
15 
90 
25 



124,000 
119,000 

6,000 
11,500 

1,500 



80 
50 
70 



34,000 
15,000 
3,000 



25 



8,000 



10 
375 
50 
20 



20,000 
12,000 
1,000 
9,000 



16,000 



43,500 
4,000 



725,000 
325,000 



44 EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 

BRITISH. 

Square miles. PopuVn in IS-iO. 

Jamaica 5,520 375,000 

Barbadoes 164 102,000 

Trinidad 1,970 45,000 

Antigua 108 36,000 

Grenada and the Granadines 120 29,000 

St. Vincent 121 36,000 

St. Kitts 68 24,000 

Dominica 275 20,000 

St. Lucia 275 18,000 

Tobago 120 14,000 

Nevis 20 12,000 

Mouserrat 47 8,000 

Tortola 20 7,000 

Barbuda 72 

Anguilla 90 3,000 

Bahamas 4,440 18,000 

Bermudas 20 10,000 

HAYTIEN NATION. 

Hajti 800,000 



In addition to these there are a number of smaller islands belonging to the 
Little Antilles, the area and population of which are not known, many of them 
being unpopulated. 

These islands, in the aggregate, form an area — allowing 40,000 square miles 
to Hayti and her adjunct islands, and something for those the statistics of which 
are unknown — of about 103,000, or equal in extent to Rhode Island, New York, 
New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and little less than the United Kingdoms of 
England, Scotland, Ireland, and the principality of Wales. 

The population being on the above date, 1840, 3,115,000, (three millions one 
hundred and fifteen thousand,) and allowing an increase of ten 2^er cent, in ten 
years on the entire population, there are now 3,250,000 (three millions two 
hundred and fifty thousand) inhabitants, who comprise the people of these 
islands. Central America consists of : 

Population ill 1840. 



Guatemala , 800,000 

San Salvador 3^50,000 

Honduras 250,000 

Costa Rica . 150,000 

Nicaragua 250,000 



These consist of five states, as shown in the above statistics, the united pop- 
ulation of which in 1840 amounted to 1,800,000 (one million eight hundred 
thousand) inhabitants. The number at present being estimated at 2,500,000, 
(two and a half millions,) shows, in thirteen years, 700,000, (seven hundred 
thousand,) being one-third and one-eighteenth of an increase in population. 
South America consists of: 

Square miles. Population in 1840. 



New Granada 450,000 1,687,000 

Venezuela 420,000 900,000 

Ecuador 280,000 600,000 

Guiana 160,000 182,000 

Brazil 3,390,000 5,000,000 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



45 



Square miles. Population in 1840. 



Xortli Peru 300,000 700,000 

South Peril - 130,000 800,000 

Bolivia f 450,000 1,716,000 

Bueuos Ayres 750,000 700,000 

Paraguay.^ 88,000 150,000 

Uruguay 92,000 75,000 

CMi 170,000 1,500,000 

Patagonia 370,000 30,000 



The total area of these states is 7,050,000 (seven millions and fifty thousand) 
square miles, but comparatively little (450,000 square miles) less than the 
whole area of Xorth America, in which we live. 

But one state in South America — Brazil — is an abject slaveholding state; 
and even here all free men are socially and politically equal, negroes and colored 
men, partly of African descent, holding offices of honor, trust, and rank with- 
out restriction. In the other states slavery is not known, all the inhabitants 
enjoying political equality, restrictions on account of color bemg entirely 
unknown, unless, indeed, necessity induces it, when in all such cases the prefer- 
ence is given to the colored man, to put a check to European presumption and 
insufferable Yankee intrusion and impudence. 

The aggregate population was 14,040,000 (fourteen millions and forty thou- 
sand) in 1840. Allowing for thirteen years the same ratio of increase as that 
of the Central American states — being one-third (4,680,000) — and this gives at 
present a population of 18,720,000 in South America. 

Add to this the population of the Antilles and Guatemala, and this gives a 
population in the AYest Indies, Central and South America, of 24,470,000 
(tw^enty-four millions four hundred and seventy thousand) inhabitants. 

But one-seventh of this population, 3,495,714, (three millions four hundred 
and ninety-five thousand seven hundred and fourteen,) being white, or of pure 
European extraction, there is a population throughout this vast area of 20,974,286 
(twenty millions nine hundred and seventy-four thousand two hundred and 
eighty-six) colored persons, who constitute, from the immense preponderance of 
their numbers, the ruling element, as they ever must be, of those countries. 

There are no influences that could be brought to bear to change this most 
fortunate and Heaven-designed state and condition of things. Nature here has 
done her own work, which the art- of knaves nor the schemes of deep-designing 
political impostors can never reach. This is a fixed fact in the zodiac of the 
political heavens, that the blacks and colored people are the stars which must 
ever most conspicuously twinkle in the firmament of this division of the west- 
ern hemisphere. 

We next invite your attention to a few facts upon which we predicate the 
claims of the black race, not only to the tropical regions and south temperate 
zone of this hemisphere, but to the whole continent, north as well as south. 
And here we desire it distinctly to be understood that, in the selection of our 
places of destination, we do not advocate the southern scheme as a concession, 
nor yet at the will nor desire of our North American oppressors, but as a policy 
by which we must be the greatest political gainers, without the risk or possibility 
of loss to ourselves. A gain by which the lever of political elevation and ma- 
chinery of national progress must ever be held and directed by our own hands 
and heads, to our own will and purposes, in defiance of the obstructions which 
might be attempted on the part of a dangerous and deep-designing oppressor. 

" From the year 1492, the discovery of Hispaniola — the first land discovered 
by Columbus in the New World — to 1502, the short space of ten years, such 
was the mortality among the natives that the Spaniards, then holding rule there, 
' began to employ a few ' Africans in the mines of the island. The experiment 



46 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



was effective — a successful one. The Indian and the African were enslaved 
together, when the Indian sunk, and the African stood. 

" It was not until June 24, of the year 1498, that the continent was dis- 
covered by J ohn Cabot, a Venetian, who sailed in August of the previous year, 
1497, from Bristol, under the patronage of Henry VII, King of England." 

In 1517, the short space of but fifteen years from the date of their introduction, 
Oarolus V, King of Spain, by right of a patent, granted permission to a 
number of persons annually to supply the islands of Hispaniola, (St. Domingo,) 
Cuba, Jamaica, and Porto Rico with natives of Africa to the number of four 
thousand annually. John Hawkins, a mercenary Englishman, was the first 
person known to engage in this general system of debasing our race, and his 
royal mistress, Queen Elizabeth, was engaged with him in interest and shared 
the general profits. 

The Africans, on their advent into a foreign country, soon experienced the 
want of their accustomed food, and habits and manner of living. 

The aborigines subsisted mainly by game and fish, with a few patches of 
maize, or Indian corn, near their wigwams, which were generally attended by 
the women, while the men were absent engaged in the chase, or at war with a 
hostile tribe. The vegetables, grains, and fruits, such as in their native country 
they had been accustomed to, were not to be obtained among the aborigines, 
which first induced the African laborer to cultivate "patches" of ground in the 
neighborhood of the mining operations, for the purpose of raising food for his 
own sustenance. 

This trait in their character was observed and regarded with considerable 
interest ; after which the Spaniards and other colonists, on contracting with the 
English slave dealers — Captain Hawkins and others — for new supplies of slaves, 
were careful to request that an adequate quantity of seeds and plants of various 
kinds, indigenous to the continent of Africa, especially those composing the 
staple products of the natives, be selected and brought out with the slaves to 
the New World. Many of these were cultivated to a considerable extent, while 
those indigenous to America were cultivated with great success. 

Shortly after the commencement of the slave trade under Elizabeth and 
Hawkins, the Queen granted a license to Sir Walter E-aleigh to search for un- 
inhabited lands, and seize upon all unoccupied by Christians. Sir Walter dis- 
covered the coast of North Carolina and Virginia, assigning the name " Virginia" 
to the whole coast now comprising the old thirteen States. 

A feeble colony was here settled which did not avail much, and it was not 
until the month of April, 1607, that the first permanent settlement was made in 
Virginia, under the patronage of letters patent from James I, King of England, 
to Thomas Gates and associates. This was the first settlement of North America, 
and thirteen years anterior to the landing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock. 

And we shall now introduce to you, from acknowledged authority, a number 
of historical extracts to prove that previous to the introduction of the black race 
upon this continent but little enterprise of any kind was successfully carried on. 
The African or negro was the first available contributor to the country, and 
consequently is by priority of right, and politically should be, entitled to the 
highest claims of an eligible citizen. 

" No permanent settlement was effected in what is now called the United 
States till the reign of James the -First." — Ramsay's History U. S., Vol. 1, p. 
38. 

" The month of April, 1607, is the epoch of the first permanent settlement on 
the coast of Virginia, the name then given to all that extent of country Mdiich 
forms thirteen States." — lb., p. 39. 

The whole coast of the country was at this time explored, not for the purpose 
of trade and agriculture — because there were then no such enterprises in the 
country, the natives not producing sufiicient of the necessaries of life to supply 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



47 



present wants, tliere being consequently nothing to trade for — but, like tlieir 
Spanish and Portuguese predecessors, who occupied the islands and different 
parts of South America, in search of gold and other precious metals. 

Trade and the cultivation of the soil, on coming to the new world, were foreign 
to their intention or designs ; consequently, when failing of success in that enter- 
prise they were sadly disappointed. 

"At a time when the precious metals were conceived to be the peculiar and 
only valuable productions of the new world, when every mountain was supposed 
to contain a treasure, and every rivulet was searched for its golden sands, this 
appearance was fondly considered as an infallible indication of the mine. Every 
hand was eager to dig. # # # # * 

"Tliere was now," says Smith, "no talk, no hope, no work; but dig gold, 
wash gold, refine gold. With this imaginary wealth, the first vessel returning 
to England was loaded, while the culture of the land and every useful occupa- 
tion was totally neglected,. 

"The colonists thus left were in miserable circumstances for want of provis- 
ions. The remainder of what they had brought with them was so small in 
quantity as to be soon expended, and so damaged in course of a long voyage 
as to be a source of disease. 

* * "In their expectation- of getting gold the peoj^le were disapjDoiuted, 
the glittering substance they had sent to England proving to be a valueless 
mineral. Smith, on his return to Jamestown, found the colony reduced to thirty- 
eight persons, who, in despair, were preparing to abandon the country. He 
employed caresses, threats, and even violence, in order to prevent them from 
executing this fatal resolution." — Ibid., pp. 45, 46. 

The Pilgrims or Puritans, in November, 1620, after having organized with 
solemn vows to the defence of each other and the maintenance of their civil 
liberty, made the harbor of Cape Cod, landing safely on "Plymouth Rock," 
December 20, about one month subsequently. They were one hundred and one 
in number, and from the toils and liardsliips consequent to a severe season, in a 
strange country, in less than six months after their arrival, " forty persons — 
nearly one-half of their original number" — had died. 

"In 1618, in the reign of James I, the British government established a regular 
trade on the coast of Africa. In the year 1620 negro slaves began to be im- 
ported into Virginia; a Dutch ship bringing tVv^enty of them for sale." — Samj)- 
son's Historical Dictionary, p. 348. 

It will be seen by these historical reminiscences that the Dutch ship landed 
her cargo at New Bedford, Massachusetts— the Avliole coast now comprising the 
old original States then went by the name of Virginia, being so named by Sir 
Walter Ealeigh in honor of his royal mistress and patron, Elizabeth, the virgin 
Queen of England, under whom he received the patent of his royal commission 
to seize all the lands unoccupied by Christians. 

Beginning their preparations in the slave trade in 1618, just two years pre- 
vious — allowing time against the landing of the first emigrants for successfully 
carrying out the project — the African captives and Puritan emigrants singularly 
enough landed upon the same section of the continent at the same time, (1620;) 
the Pilgrims at Plymouth, and the captive slaves at New Bedford, but a fe\^' 
miles, comparatively, south. 

"The country at this period was one vast wilderness. The continent of 
North America was then one continued forest. * * * 

"There were no horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, or tame beasts of any kind. * * 
There were no domestic poultry. * * There were no garden: , orchards, 
public roads, meadows, or cultivated fields. * * They often burned the 
woods that they could advantageously plant their corn. * * * 

"They had neither spice, salt, bread, butter, cheese, nor milk. They had no 



48 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



set meals, but ate when they were hungry, or could find anything to satisfy the 
cravings of nature. 

"Very little of their food was derived from the earth, except what it sponta- 
neously produced. * * The ground was both their seat and table. * * 
Their best bed was a skin. * * They had neither iron, steel, nor any metallic 
instruments." — Ramsay^ s History, pp. 39, 40. 

AYe adduce not these extracts to disparage or detract from the real worth of 
our brother Indian — for we are identical as the subjects of American wrongs, 
outrages, and oppression, and therefore one in interest — far be it from our de- 
signs. Whatever opinion he may entertain of our race, in accordance with the 
impressions made by the contumely heaped upon us by our mutual oppressor, 
the American nation, we admire his for the many deeds of heroic and noble 
daring with which the brief history of his liberty-loAdug people is replete. We 
sympathize with him, because our brethren are the successors of his in the 
degradation of American bondage ; and Ave adduce them in evidence against the 
many aspersions heaped upon the African race, avowing that their inferiority to 
the other races and unfitness for a high civil and social position caused them to 
be reduced to servitude. 

For the purpose of proving their availability and eminent fitness alone, not 
to say superiority, and not inferiority, first suggested to Europeans the substi- 
tution of xVfrican for that of Indian labor in the mines ; that their superior adap- 
tation to the difficulties consequent to a new country and different climate made 
them preferable to Europeans themselves ; and their superior skill, industry, 
and general thriftiness in all that they did, first suggested to the colonists the 
propriety of turning their attention to agricultural and other industrial pursuits 
than those of mining operations. 

It is evident from what has herein been adduced — the settlement of Captain 
John Smith being in the cmirse of a few months reduced to thirty-eight, and 
that of the Pilgrims at Plymouth from one hundred and one to fifty-seven, in 
six months — that the whites nor aborigines were equal to the hard and to them 
insumiountable difficulties which then stood wide-spread before them. 

An endless forest — the impenetrable earth ; the one to be removed and the 
other to be excavated. Towns and cities to be built, and farms to be cultivated; 
all presented difficulties too arduous for the European then here, and entirely 
unknown to the native of the continent. 

At a period such as this, when the natives themselves had fallen victims to 
the tasks imposed upon them by the usurpers, and the Europeans also were fast 
sinking beneath the influence and weight of climate and hardships ; when food 
could not be obtained, nor the common conveniences of life procured ; when ar- 
duous duties of life Avere to be performed, and none capable of doing them, save 
those who had previously by their labors, not only in their OAvn country but in 
the new, so proven themselves capable; it is very evident, as the most natural 
consequence, the Africans were resorted to for the performance of every duty 
common to domestic life. 

There Avere no laborers known to the colonists, from Cape Cod to Cape Look- 
out, than those of the African race. They entered at once into the mines, ex- 
tracting therefrom the rich treasures Avhich for a thousand ages lay hidden in 
the earth ; when plunging into the depths of the rivers, they culled from their 
sandy bottoms, to the astonishment of the natives and surprise of the Europeans, 
minerals and precious stones Avhich added to the pride and aggrandizement of 
every throne in Europe. 

And from their knoAvledge of cultivation — an art acquired in their nati\"e 
Africa — the farming interests in the north and planting in the south Avere com- 
menced, Avith a prospect never dreamed of before the introduction on the con- 
tinent of this most interesting, unexampled, hardy race of men — a race capable 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



49 



of tlie endurance of more toil, fatigue, and hunger than any other branch of the 
human familj. 

Though pagans, for the most part, in their own country, they required not to 
be taught to work, and how to do it; but it was only necessary to bid them 
work, and they at once knew what to do, and how it should be done. 

Even up to the present day it is notorious that in the planting States the 
blacks themselves are the only skilful cultivators of the soil, the proprietors, or 
planters, as they are termed, knowing little or nothing of the art, save that 
which they learn from the African husbandman ; while the ignorant white over- 
seer, whose duty is to see that the work is attended to, knows still less. 

Hemp, cotton, tobacco, corn, rice, sugar, and many other important staple 
products, are all the result of African skill and labor in the southern States of 
this country. The greater number of the mechanics of the south are also black 
men. 

Nor was their skill as herdsmen inferior to their other proficiencies, they 
being among the most accomplished trainers of horses in the world. 

Indeed, to this class of men may be indebted the entire country for the im- 
provement south in the breed of horses. And those who have travelled in the 
southern States could not have failed to observe that the principal trainers, 
jockies, riders, and judges of horses, were men of African descent. 

These facts alone are sufficient to establish our claim to this country as legiti- 
mate as that of those who fill the highest stations by the suffrage of the people. 

In no period since the existence of the ancient enlightened nations of Africa 
have the prospects of the black race been brighter than now ; and at no time 
during the Christian era have there been greater advantages presented for the 
advancement of any people than at present, those which offer to the black race, 
both in the eastern and western hemispheres, our election being in the western. 

Despite the efforts to the contrary, in the strenuous endeavors for a supremacy 
of race, the sympathies of the world in their upward tendency are in favor of 
the African and black races of the earth. To be available, ice must take ad- 
vantage of these favorable feelings, and strike out for ourselves a bold and manly 
course of independent action and position; otherwise this pure and uncorrupted 
sympathy will be reduced to pity and contempt. 

Of the countries of our choice, Ave have stated that one province and tAvo 
islands were slaveholding places. These, as before named, are Brazil, in South 
America, and Cuba and Porto Rico, in the West Indies. There ai'e a fcAv other 
little islands of minor consideration — the Danish, three, Swedish, one, and Dutch, 
lour. 

But in the eight last referred to slavery is of such a mild type that, however 
objectionable as such, it is merely nominal. 

In South America and the Antilles, in its worst form, slavery is a blessing 
almost compared with the miserable degradation of the slave under our upstart, 
assumed superiors, the slaveholders of the United States. 

In Brazil, color is no badge of condition, and every freeman, whatever his 
color, is socially and politically equal, there being black gentlemen of pure Af- 
rican descent filling the highest positions in state, under the Emperor.- There 
is also an established law by the congress of Brazil making the crime punish- 
able with death for the commander of any vessel to bring into the country any 
human being as a slave. 

The following law has passed one branch of the general legislative assembly 
of Brazil, but little doubt being entertained that it will find a like favor in the 
other branch of that august general legislative body : 

1. All children born after the date of this law shall be free. 

2. All those shall be considered free who are born in other countries and 
come to Brazil after this date. 



H. Rep. Com. 148 4 



50 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



3. Every one who serves from birth to 7 years of age, any of those included 
in article 1, or who has to serve so many years, at the end of 14 years shall be 
emancipated, and live as he chooses. 

4. Every slave paying for his liberty a sum equal to what he cost his master, 
or who shall gain it by honorable gratuitous title, the master shall be obliged to 
give him a free paper, under the penalty of article 179 of the criminal code. 

0. Where there is no stipulated price or fixed value of the slave, it shall be 
determined by arbitrators, one of which shall be the public promotor of the 
town. 

6. The government is authorized to give precise regulations for the execution 
of this law, and also to form establishments necessary for taking care of those 
who, born after this date, may be abandoned by the owners of slaves. 

7. Opposing laws and regulations are repealed. 

Concerning Cuba, there is an old established law giving any slave the right 
of a certain legal tender, which, if refused by the slaveholder, he, by going to 
the residence of any parish priest and making known the facts, shall imme- 
diately be declared a freeman, the priest or bishop of the parish or diocese giv- 
ing him his "freedom papers." The legal tender, or sum fixed bylaw, we think 
does not exceed two hundred and fifty Spanish dollars. It may be more. 

Until the Americans intruded themselves into Cuba, contaminating society 
wherever they located, black and colored gentlemen and ladies of rank mingled 
indiscriminately in society. But since the advent of these negro-haters, the col- 
ored people of Cuba have been reduced nearly, if not quite, to the level of the 
miserable degraded position of the colored people of the United States, who 
almost -consider it a compliment and favor to receive the notice or smiles of a 
white. 

Can we be satisfied in this enlightened age of the world — amid the advan- 
tages which now present themselves to us — with the degradation and servility 
inherited from our fathers in this country? God forbid. And we think the 
universal reply will be : We will not. 

A half century brings about a mighty change in the reality of existing things 
and events of the world's history. Fifty years ago our fathers lived ; for the 
most part they were sorely oppressed, debased, ignorant, and incapable of com- 
prehending the political relations of mankind, the great machinery and motive 
power by which the enlightened nations of the earth were impelled forward. 
They knew but little, and ventured to do nothing to enhance their own interests 
beyond that which their oppressors taught them. They lived amidst a continual 
cloud of moral obscurity, a fog of bewilderment and delusion, by which they 
were of necessity compelled to confine themselves to a limited space — a known 
locality — lest by one step beyond this they might have stumbled over a preci- 
pice, ruining themselves beyond recovery in the fall. 

We are their sons, but not the same individuals, neither do we live in the 
same period with them. That which suited them does not suit us, and that 
ynXh which they may have been contented will not satisfy us. 

Without education, they were ignorant of the world and fearful of adventure. 
With education, we are conversant with its geography, history, and nations, and 
delight in its enterprises and responsibilities. They once were held as slaves ; 
to such a condition we never could be reduced. They were content with priv- 
ileges ; we will be satisfied with nothing less than rights. They felt themselves 
happy to be permitted to beg for rights ; we demand them as an innate inherit- 
ance. They considered themselves favored to live by sufi'erance ; we reject it 
as a degradation. A secondary position was all they asked for ; we claim en- 
tire equality or nothing. The relation of master and slave was innocently ac- 
knowledged by them ; we deny the right, as such, and pronounce the relation 
as the basest injustice that ever scourged the earth and cursed the human fam- 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



61 



ily. Tliey admitted themselves to be inferiors ; we barely acknowledge the 
whites as equals — perhaps not in every particular. They lamented their irre- 
coverable fate, and incapacity to redeem themselves and their race. We rejoice 
that, as their sons, it is our happy lot and high mission to accomplish that which 
they desired and would have done, but failed for want of ability to do. 

Let no intelligent man or woman, then, among us be found at the present day 
exulting in the degradation that our enslaved parents would gladly have rid 
themselves had they have had the intelligence and qualifications to accomplish 
their designs. Let none be found to shield themselves behind the plea of our 
brother bondmen in ignorance ; that we know not what to do, nor where to go. 
We are no longer slaves, as were our fathers, but freemen, fully qualified to meet 
our oppressors in every relation which belongs to the elevation of man, the es- 
tablishment, sustenance, and perpetuity of a nation. And such a position, by 
the help of God, our common Father, we are determined to take and maintain. 

There is but one question presents itself for our serious consideration, upon 
which we must give a decisive reply : Will we transmit, as an inheritance to our 
children, the blessings of unrestricted civil liberty, or shall we entail upon them, 
as our only political legacy, the degradation and oppression left us by our fathers ? 

Shall we be persuaded that we can live and prosper nowhere but under the 
authority and power of our North American white oppressors ; that this (the 
United States) is the country most, if not the only one, favorable to our im- 
provement and progress % Are we willing to admit that we are incapable of self- 
government, establishing for ourselves such political privileges, and making such 
internal improvements as we delight to enjoy after American white men have 
made them for themselves % 

No ! Neither is it true that the United States is the country best adapted to 
our improvement. But that country is the best in which our manhood, morally, 
mentally, and physically, can be hest developed ; in which we have an untram- 
melled right to the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty ; and the West Indies, 
Central and South America present now such advantages superiorly preferable 
to all other countries. 

That the continent of America was designed by Providence as a reserved 
asylum for the various oppressed people of the earth, of all races, to us seems 
very apparent. 

From the earliest period after the discovery various nations sent a representa- 
tive here, either as adventurers and speculators, or employed laborers, seamen, 
or soldiers, hired to work for their employers. And among the earliest and most 
numerous class who found their way to the New World were those of the Afri- 
can race. And it has been ascertained, to our minds beyond a doubt, that when 
tlie continent was discovered there were found in the West Indies and Central 
America tribes of the black race, fine looking people, having the usual charac- 
teristics of color and hair, identifying them as being originally of the African 
race ; no doubt being a remnant of the Africans who, with the Carthagenian 
expedition, were adventitiously cast upon this continent in their memorable ad- 
venture to the " Great island," after sailing many miles distant to the west of 
the " Pillars of Hercules," the present Straits of Gibraltar. 

We would not be thought to be superstitious when we say that in all this 
we can see the finger of God." Is it not worthy of a notice here, that while 
the ingress of foreign whites to this continent has been voluntary and constant, 
and that of the blacks involuntary and but occasional, yet the whites in the 
southern part have decreased in numbers, degenerated in character, and become 
mentally and physically enervated and imbecile; while the blacks and colored 
people have steadily increased in numbers, regenerated in character, and have 
grown mentally and physically vigorous and active, developing every function 
of their manhood, and are now, in their elementary character, decidedly superior 
to the white race? So, then, the white race could never successfully occupy 



52 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



the southern portion of the continent; they must, of necessity, every generation, 
be repeopled from another quarter of the globe. The fatal error committed by 
the Spaniards, under Pizarro, was the attempt to exterminate the Incas and 
Peruvians, and fill their places by European whites. The Peruvian Indians, a 
hale, hardy, vigorous, intellectual race of people, were succeeded by those who 
soon became idle, vicious, degenerated and imbecile. But Peru, like all the 
other South American States, is regaining her former potency, just in propor- 
tion as the European race decreases among them. All the labor of the country 
is performed by the aboriginal natives and the blacks ; the few Europeans there, 
being the merest excrescences on the body politic, consuming drones in the 
social hive. 

Had we no other claims than those set forth in a foregoing part of this ad- 
dress, they are sufficient to induce every black and colored person to remain on 
this continent unshaken and unmoved. 

But the West Indians, Central and South Americans, are a noble race of 
people; generous, sociable and tractable, just the people with whom we desire 
to unite, who are susceptible of progress, improvement, and reform of every 
kind. They now desire all the improvements of North America, but being 
justly jealous of their rights, they have no confidence in the whites of the 
United States, and consequently peremptorily refuse to permit an indiscriminate 
settlement among them of this class of people, but placing every confidence in 
the black and colored people of North America. 

The example of the unjust invasion and forcible seizure of a large portion of 
the territory of Mexico is still fresh in their memory; and the oppressive dis- 
franchisement of a large number of native Mexicans, by the Americans, because 
of the color and race of the natives, will continue to rankle in the bosom of the 
people of those countries, and prove a sufficient barrier henceforth against the 
inroads of North American whites among them. 

Upon the American continent, then, we are determined to remain, despite 
every opposition that may be urged against us. 

You will doubtless be asked, and that, too, with an air of seriousness, why, 
if desirable to remain on this continent, not be content to remain in the United 
States] The objections to this, and potent reason, too, in our estimation, have 
already been clearly shown. 

But notwithstanding all this, were there still any rational, nay, even the most 
futile grounds for hope, we still might be stupid enough to be content to remain, 
and yet, through another period of unexampled patience and suffering, continue 
meekly to drag the galling yoke and clank the chain of servility and degrada- 
tion. But whether or not in this, God is to be thanked and Heaven blessed 
we are not permitted, despite our willingness and stupidity, to indulge even the 
most distant glimmer of a hope of attaining to the level of a well-protected slave. 

For years we have been studiously and jealously observing the course of 
political events and policy, on the part of this country, both in a national and 
individual State capacity, as pursued toward the colored people. And he who, 
in the midst of them, can live without observation, is either inexcusably ignorant 
or reprehensibly deceptions and untrustworthy. 

We deem it entirely unnecessary to tax you with anything like the history 
of even one chapter of the unequalled infamies perpetrated on the part of the 
various State and national governments, by legislation, against us. But we 
shall call your particular attention to the more recent acts of the United States ; 
because whatever privileges we may enjoy in any individual State will avail 
nothing, when not recognized as such by the United States. 

When the condition of the inhabitants of any country is fixed by legal grades 
of distinction, this condition can never be changed except by express legislation. 
And it is the height of folly to expect such express legislation, except by the 
inevitable force of some irresistible internal political pressure. The force ne<5es- 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



53 



sary to this imperative demand on our part we never can obtain, because of our 
numerical feebleness. 

Were the interests of the common people identical with ours, we, in this, 
might succeed, because we, as a class, would then be numerically the superior. 
But this is not a question of the rich against the poor, nor the common people 
against the higher classes ; but a question of white against black — every white 
person, by legal right, being held superior to a black or colored person. 

In Russia the common people might obtain an equality with the aristocracy ; 
because, of the sixty-five millions of her population, forty- five millions are serfs 
or peasants — leaving but twenty millions of the higher classes, royalty, nobility, 
and all included. 

The rights of no oppressed people have ever yet been obtained by a voluntary 
act of justice on the part of the oppressors. Christians, philanthropists, and 
moralists may preach, argue, and philosophize as they may to the contrary ; 
facts are against them. Voluntary acts, it is true, which are in themselves just, 
may sometimes take place on the part of the oppressor ; but these are always 
actuated by the force of some outward circumstances of self-interest equal to a 
compulsion. 

The boasted liberties of the American people were established by a constitu- 
tion borrowed from and modelled after the British mag7ia charta. And this 
great charter of British liberty, so much boasted of and vaunted as a model bill 
of rights, was obtained only by force and extortion. 

The Barons, an order of noblemen under the reign of King John, becoming 
dissatisfied at the terms submitted to by their sovereign, which necessarily 
brought degradation upon themselves — terms prescribed by the insolent Pope 
Innocent III, the haughty sovereign Pontiff of Rome — summoned his Majesty 
to meet them on the plains of the memorable meadow of Runnymede, where, 
presenting to him their own bill of rights — a bill dictated by themselves, and 
drawn up by their own hands — at the unsheathed points of a thousand glittering 
swords, they commanded him, against his will, to sign the extraordinary docu- 
ment. There was no alternative ; he must either do or die. With a puerile 
timidity he leaned forward his rather commanding but imbecile person, and, with 
a trembling hand and single dash of the pen, the name KINGr JOHN stood 
forth in bold relief, sending more terror throughout the world than the mystic 
handwriting of Heaven throughout the dominions of Nebuchadnezzar, blazing 
on the walls of Babylon — a consternation, not because of the name of the King, 
but because of the rights of others, which that name acknowledged. 

The King, however, soon became dissatisfied, and, determining on a revocation 
of the act — an act done entirely contrary to his will — at the head of a formi- 
dable army, spread fire and sword throughout the kingdom. 

But the Barons, though compelled to leave their castles, their houses and 
homes, and fly for their lives, could not be induced to undo that which they had 
so nobly done — the achievement of their rights and privileges. Hence the act 
has stood throughout all succeeding time, because never annulled by those who 
willed it. 

It will be seen that the first great modern bill of rights was obtained only by 
a force of arms — a resistance of the people against the injustice and intolerance 
of their rulers. We say the people, because that which the Barons demanded 
for themselves was afterwards extended to the common people. Their only 
hope was based on their superiority of numbers. 

But can we in this country hope for as much ? Certainly not. Our case is 
a hopeless one. There was but one John, with his few sprigs of adhering 
royalty, and but one heart at which the threatening points of their swords were 
directed by a thousand Barons ; while in our case there is but a handful of the 
oppressed, without a sword to point, and twenty millions of Johns or Jonathans, 
as you please, with as many hearts, tenfold more relentless than that of Prince 



64 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



Jolin Lackland, and as deceptions and hypocritical as the Italian heart of Inno- 
cent III. 

Where, then, is our hope of success in this country ? Upon what is it based 1 
Upon what principle of political policy and sagacious discernment do our polit- 
ical leaders and acknowledged great men — colored men, we mean — -justify them- 
selves by telling us, and insisting that we shall believe them, and submit to 
what they say ; to be patient, remain where we are ; that there is a bright 
prospect and glorious future " before us in this country ? May Heaven open our 
eyes from their Bartemian obscurity. 

But we call your attention to another point of our political degradation — the 
acts of State and general governments. 

In a few of the States, as in New York, the colored inhabitants have a partial 
privilege of voting a white man into office. This privilege is based on a 
property qualification of two hundred and fifty dollars' worth of real estate. In 
others, as in Ohio, in the absence of organic provision, the privilege is granted 
by judicial decision, based on a ratio of blood of an admixture of more than 
one-half white ; while in many of the States there is no privilege allowed, either 
partial or unrestricted. 

The policy of the above-named States will be seen and detected at a glance, 
which, while seeming to extend immunities, is intended especially for the object 
of degradation. 

In the State of New York, for instance, there is a constitutional distinction 
created among colored men, almost necessarily compelling one part to feel 
superior to the other, while among the whites no such distinctions dare be known. 
Also in Ohio there is a legal distinction set up by an upstart judiciary, creating 
among the colored people a privileged class by birth ! All this must necessarily 
sever the cords of union among us, creating almost insurmountable prejudices 
of the most stupid and fatal kind, paralyzing the last bracing nerve which 
promised to give us strength. 

It is upon this same principle, and for the self same object, that the general 
government has long been endeavoring and is at present knowingly designing 
to efiPect a recognition of the independence of the Dominican republic, while 
disparagingly refusing to recognize the independence of the Haytien nation — a 
people four-fold greater in numbers, wealth, and power. The Haytiens, it is 
pretended, are refused because they are negroes; while the Dominicans, as is 
well known to all who are familiar with the geography, history, and political 
relations of that people, are identical, except in language, they speaking the 
Spanish tongue, with those of the Haytiens, being composed of negroes and a 
mixed race. The government may shield itself by the plea that it is not familiar 
with the origin of those people. To this we have but to reply, that if the 
government is thus ignorant of the relations of its near neighbors, it is the 
height of presumption, and no small degree of assurance, for it to set up itself 
as capable of prescribing terms to the one, or conditions to the other. 

Should they accomplish their object, they then will have succeeded in forever 
establishing a barrier of impassable separation, by the creation of a political 
distinction between those people, of superiority and inferiority of origin or 
national existence. Here, then, is another strat;?gem of this most determined 
and untiring enemy of our race — the government of the United States. 

We come now to the crowning act of infamy on the part of the general 
government towards the colored inhabitants of the United States ; an act so 
vile in its nature that rebellion against its demands should be promptly made in 
every attempt to enforce its infernal provisions. 

In the history of national existence there is not to be found a parallel to the 
tantalizing insult and aggravating despotism of the provisions of Millard Fill- 
more's fugitive slave bill, passed by the thirty-third Congress of the United 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



55 



States, with tlie approbation of a majority of the American people, in the year 
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ eighteen hundred and fifty. 

This bill had but one object in its provisions, which was fully accomplished 
in its passage ; that is, the redaction of every colored person in the United 
States, save those who carry free papers of emancipation, or bills of sale from 
former claimants or owners, to a state of relative slavery ; placing each and 
every one of us at the disposal of any and every white who might choose to 
claim us, and the caprice of any and every upstart knave bearing the title of 
" commissioner." 

Did any of you, fellow-countrymen, reside in a country the provisions of 
whose laws were such that any person of a certain class, who whenever he, she, 
or they pleased, might come forward, lay a claim to, make oath before (it might 
be) some stupid and heartless person authorized to decide in such cases, and 
take, at their option, your horse, cow, sheep, house and lot, or any other property 
bought and paid for by your own earnings, the result of your personal toil and 
labor, would you be Avilling, or could you be induced by any reasoning, however 
great the source from which it came, to remain in that country ? We pause, 
fellow-countrymen, for a reply. 

If there be not one yea, of how much more importance, then, is your oic7i 
personal safety than that of property 1 Of how much more concern is the safety 
of a wife or husband than that of a cow or horse, a child than a sheep, the 
destiny of your family to that of a house and lot 1 

And yet this is precisely our condition. Any one of us, at any moment, is 
liable to be claimed, seized, and taken into custody by any white, as his or her 
property, to be enslaved for life, and there is no remedy because it is the law of 
the land! And we dare predict, and take this favorable opportunity to forewarn 
you, fellow-countrymen, that the time is not far distant when there will be car- 
ried on by the white men of this nation an extensive commerce in the persons 
of what now compose the free colored people of the north. We forewarn you 
that the general enslavement of the whole of this class of people is now being 
contemplated by the whites. 

At present we are liable to enslavement at any moment, provided we are 
taken away from our homes. But we dare venture further to forewarn you 
that the scheme is in mature contemplation, and has even been mooted in high 
places, of harmonizing the two discordant political divisions in the country by 
again reducing the free to slave States. 

The completion of this atrocious scheme only becomes necessary for each 
and every one of us to find an owner and master at our own doors. Let the 
general government but pass such a law, and the States will comply as an act 
of hai'mony. Let the south but demand it, and the north will comply as a duty 
of compromise. 

If Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts can be found arming their 
sons as watch-dogs for southern slave-lmnters ; if the United States may with 
impunity garrison with troops the court-house of the freest city in America ; 
blockade the street ; station armed ruffians of dragoons and artillery in hostile 
aiTay against the people ; if free, white, high born and bred gentlemen of 
Boston and New York are smitten down to the earth,* refused an entrance on 



* John Jay, esq , of New York, son of the late distinguished jurist, Hon. William 
Jay, was, in 1852, as the counsel of a lugitive slave, brutally assaulted and struck in the 
face by the slave-catching agent and counsel, Busteed. 

Also, Mr. Dana, an honorable gentleman, counsel for the fugitive Burns, one of the 
first literary men of Boston, was arrested on his entrance into the court-house, and not 
permitted to pass the guard of slave-catchers till the slave agent and counsel, Loring, 
together with the overseer, Suttle, inspected him, and ordered that he might be allowed to 
pass in ! After which, in passing along the street, Mr. Dana was ruffianly assaulted and 
murderously felled to the earth by the minions of the dastardly southern overseer. 



56 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



professional business into the court-houses until inspected hj a slave-hunter 
and his counsel — all to put down the liberty of the black man — then, indeed, is 
there no hope for us in this country ! 

It is, fellow-countrymen, a fixed fact, as indelible as the covenant of God in 
the heavens, that the colored people of these United States are the slaves of 
any white person who may choose to claim them ! 

What safety or guarantee have we for ourselves or families? Let us for a 
moment examine this point. 

Supposing some hired spy of the slave power residing in Illinois, whom, for 
illustration, we shall call Stephen A., Counsel B., a mercenary hireling of New 
York, and commissioner 0., a slave-catcher of Pennsylvania, should take 
umbrage at the acts or doings of any colored person or persons in a free State, 
they may with impunity send or go on their knight errands to the south, (as 
did a hireling of the slave power in New York, a lawyer by profession,) give a 
description of such person or persons, and an agent with warrants may be im- 
mediately despatched to swear them into slavery forever. 

We tell you, fellow-countrymen,' any one of you here assembled (your hum- 
ble committee who report to you this address) may, by the laws of this land, 
be seized, whatever the circumstances of his birth, whether he descends from 
free or slave parents, whether born north or south of Mason and Dixon's line, 
and, ere the setting of another sun, be speeding his way to that living sepulchre 
and death chamber of our race — the curse and scourge of this country — the 
southern part of the United States. This is not idle speculation, but living, 
naked, undisguised truth. 

A member of your committee has received a letter from a gentleman of 
respectability and standing in the south, who writes to the following effect. 
We copy his own words : 

" There are at this moment, as I was to-day informed by Colonel W., one of 
our first magistrates in this city, a gang of from twenty -five to thirty vagabonds 
of poor white men, who, for twenty-five dollars a head, clear of all expenses, 
are ready and willing to go to the north, make acquaintance with the blacks in 
various places, send their descriptions to unprincipled slaveholders here, (for 
there are many of this kind to be found among the poorer class of masters,) and 
swear them into bondage. So the free blacks, as well as fugitive slaves, will 
have to keep a sharp watch over tliemselves to get clear of this scheme to 
enslave them." 

Here, then, you have but a paragraph in the great volume of this political 
crusade and legislative pirating by the American people over the rights and 
privileges of the colored inhabitants of the country. If this be but a paragraph, 
(for such it is, in truth,) what must be the contents when the whole history is 
divulged! Never will the contents of this dreadful record of crime, corruption, 
and oppression be fully revealed until the trump of God shall proclaim the 
universal summons to judgment. Then, and then alone, shall the whole truth 
be acknowledged, when the doom of the criminal shall be forever sealed. 

We desire not to be sentimental, but rather would be political ; and therefore 
call your attention to another point — a point already referred to. 

In giving the statistics of various countries, and preferences to many places 
herein mentioned, as points of destination in emigration, we have said little or 
nothing concerning the present governments, the various State departments, nor 
the condition of society among the people. 

This is not the province of your committee, but the legitimate office of a board 
of foreign commissioners, whom there is no doubt will be created by the con- 
vention, with provisions and instructions to report thereon, in due season, of 
their mission. 

With a few additional remarks on the subject of the British provinces of 



EMAirCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



57 



North America, we shall have done our duty, and completed, for the time being, 
the arduous, important, and momentous duty assigned to us. 

The British provinces of North America, especially Canada West — formerly 
called Upper Canada — in climate, soil, productions, and the usual prospects for 
internal improvements, are equal, if not superior, to any northern part of the 
continent. And for these very reasons, aside from their contiguity to the northern 
part of the United States — and consequent facility for the escape of the slaves 
from the south — we certainly should prefer them as a place of destination. We 
love the Canadas, and admire their laws, because, as British provinces, there is no 
difference known among the people — no distinction of race. And we deem it a 
duty to recommend, that for the present, as a temporary asylum, it is certainly 
advisable for every colored person, who desiring to emigrate, and is not pre- 
pared for any other destination, to locate in Canada West. 

Every advantage on our part should be now taken of the opportunity of ob- 
taining lands while they are to be had cheap, and on the most easy conditions, 
from the government. 

Even those who never contemplate a removal from this country of chains, it 
will be their best interest and greatest advantage to procure lands in the Cana- 
dian provinces. It will be an easy, profitable, and safe investment, even should 
they never occupy nor yet see them. We shall then be but doing what the 
whites in the United States have for years been engaged in — securing unsettled 
lands in the territories, previous to their enhancement in value, by the force of 
settlement and progressive neighboring improvements. There are also at pres- 
ent great openings for colored people to enter into the various industrial de- 
partments of business operations ; laborers, mechanics, teachers, merchants, and 
shopkeepers, and professional men of every kind. These places are now open 
as much to the colored as the white man in Canada, with little or no opposition 
to his progress ; at least in the character of prejudicial preferences on account 
of race. And all of these, without any hesitancy, do we most cheerfully recom- 
mend to the colored inhabitants of the United States. 

But our preference to other places over the Canadas has been cursorily stated in 
the foregoing part of this paper; and since the writing of that part it would 
seem that the predictions or apprehensions concerning the provinces are about 
to be verified by the British Parliament and home government themselves. 
They have virtually conceded, and openly expressed it — Lord Brougham in the 
lead — that the British provinces of North America must, erie k)ng, cease to be a 
part of the English domain and become annexed to the United States. 

It is needless, however much we may regret the necessity of its acknowledg- 
ment, for us to stop our ears, shut our eyes, and stultify our senses against the 
truth in this matter, since, by so doing, it does not alter the case. Every po- 
litical movement, both in England and the United States, favors such an issue, 
and the sooner we acknowledge it the better it will be for our cause, ourselves 
individually, and the destiny of our people in this country. 

These provinces have long been burdensome to the i3ritish nation, and her 
statesmen have long since discovered, and decided as an indisputable predicate 
in political economy, that any province as an independent state is more profit- 
able in a commercial consideration to a country than when depending as one of 
its colonies. As a child to the parent, or an apprentice to his master, so is a 
colony to a state. And as the man who enters into business is to the manufac- 
turer and importer, so is the colony which becomes an independent state to the 
country from which it recedes. 

Great Britain is decidedly a commercial and money-making nation, and counts 
closely on her commercial relations with any country. That nation or people 
which puts the largest amount of money into her cofPers are the people who 
may expect to obtain her greatest favors. This the Americans do; conse- 
quently, and we candidly ask you to mai'k the prediction, the British will in- 



58 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



terpose little or no obstructions to the Oanadas, Cuba, or any otlier province or 
colony contiguous to this country falling into the American Union, except only 
in such cases where there would be a compromise of her honor. And in the 
event of a seizure of any of these, there would be no necessity for such a sacri- 
fice ; it could readily be avoided by diplomacy. 

Then, there is little hope for us on this continent short of those places where, 
by reason of their numbers, there is the greatest combination of strength and 
interests on the part of the colored race. 

We have ventured to predict a reduction of the now nominally free into slave 
States. Already has this reign of terror " and dreadful work of destruction 
commenced. We give you the quotation from a Mississippi paper, which will 
readily be admitted as authority in this case : 

" Two years ago a law was passed by the California legislature granting oTie 
year to the owners of slaves carried into the territory previous to the adoption 
of the constitution to remove them beyond the limits of the State. Last year 
the provision of this law was extended twelve months longer. We learn by the 
late California papers that a bill has just passed the assembly, by a vote of 33 
to 21, continuing the same law in Jorce until 1855. The provisions of this bill 
embraces slaves who have heen carried to California since the adoption of her 
Constitution^ as well as those who were there previously. The large majority 
by which it passed, and the opinions advanced during the discussion, indicates 
a more favorable state of sentiment in regard, to the rights of slaveholders in 
California than we supposed existed.^' — ( Mississippian.) 

No one who is a general and intelligent observer of the politics of this country 
will, after reading this, doubt for a moment the final result. 

At present there is a proposition under consideration in California to authorize 
the holding of a convention to amend the constitution of that State, which 
doubtless will be carried into effect ; when there is no doubt that a clause will 
be inserted granting the right to hold slaves at discretion in the State. This 
being done, it will meet with general favor throughout the country by the 
American people, and the policy be adopted on the State's right principle. This 
alone is necessary, in addition to the insufferable fugitive slave law, and the 
recent nefarious Nebraska bill, which is based upon this very boasted American 
policy of the State's right principle, to reduce the free to slave States without a 
murmur from the people. And did not the Nebraska bill disrespect the feelings 
and infringe upon the political rights of northern white people, its adoption 
would be hailed with loud shouts of approbation from Portland to San Francisco. 

That, then, which is left for us to do is to secure our liberty ; a position which 
shall fully warrant us against the liability of such monstrous political crusades 
and riotous invasions of our rights. Nothing less than a national indemnity, 
indelibly fixed by virtue of our own sovereign potency, will satisfy us as a re- 
dress of grievances for the unparalleled wrongs, undisguised impositions, and 
unmitigated oppression which we have suffered at the hands of this American 
people. 

And what wise politician would otherwise conclude and determine ? None, 
we dare say. And a people who are incapable of this discernment and pre- 
caution are incapable of self-government, and incompetent to direct their own 
political destiny. For our own part, we spurn to treat for liberty on any other 
terms or conditions. 

It may not be inapplicable, in this particular place, to quote from high au- 
thority language which has fallen under our notice since this report has been 
under consideration. The quotation is worth nothing, except to show that the 
position assumed by us is a natural one, which constitutes the essential basis of 
self-protection. 

Said Earl Aberdeen recently in the British house of lords, when referring to 
the great question which is now agitating Europe : " One thing alone is certain, 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. ^ 59 

that the only way to obtain a sure and honorable peace is to acquire a posi- 
tion which may command it, and to gain such a position every nerve and sinew 
of the empire should be strained. The pickpocket who robs us is not to be let 
off because he offers to restore our purse ; " and his grace might have justly 
added, " should never thereafter be intrusted or confided in." 

The plea doubtless will be, as it already frequently has been raised, that to 
remove from the United States, our slave brethren would be left without a 
hope. They already find their way in large companies to the Oanadas, and they 
liave only to be made sensible that there is as much freedom for them south as 
there is north ; as much protection in Mexico as in Canada ; and the fugitive 
slave will find it a much pleasanter journey and more easy of access to wend 
his way from Louisiana and Arkansas to Mexico, than thousands of miles 
through the slaveholders of the south and slave-catchers of the north to Can- 
ada. Once into Mexico, and his further exit to Central and South America and 
tlie West Indies would be certain. There would be no obstructions whatever. 
No miserable, half-starved, servile northern slave-catchers by the way, waiting, 
cap in hand, ready and willing to do the bidding of their contemptible southern 
masters. 

No prisons nor court-houses as slave-pens and gamsons to secure the fugitive 
and rendezvous the mercenary gangs who are bought as military on such occa- 
sions. No perjured marshals, bribed commissioners, nor hireling counsel, who, 
spaniel-like, crouch at the feet of southern slaveholders, and cringingly trem- 
ble at the crack of their whip. No — not as may be encountered throughout his 
northern flight — there are none of these to be found or met with in his travels 
from the Bravo del Norte to the dashing Oronoco — from the borders of Texas 
to the boundaries of Peru. 

Should anything occur to prevent a successful emigration to the south — Cen- 
tral, South America, and the West Indies — we have no hesitancy, rather than 
remain in the United States, the merest subordinates and serviles of the whites, 
should the Canadas still continue separate, in their political relations from this 
country, to recommend to the great body of our people to remove to Canada 
West, where, being politically equal to the whites, physically united with each 
other by a concentration of strength, when worse comes to worse, we may be 
found, not as a scattered, weak, and impotent people, as we now are, separated 
from each other throughout the Union, but a united and powerful body of free- 
men, mighty in politics, and terrible in any conflict which might ensue in the 
event of an attempt at the disturbance of our political relations, domestic repose, 
and peaceful firesides. 

Now, fellow-countrymen, we have done. Into your ears have we recounted 
your own sorrows ; before your own eyes have we exhibited your wrongs ; into 
your own hands have we committed your own cause. If there should prove a 
failure to remedy this dreadful evil, to assuage this terrible curse which has 
come upon us, the fault will be yours and not ours, since we have offered you a 
healing balm for every sorely aggravated wound. 

Martin R. Delany, Pennsylvania. 

William Webb, Pennsylvania. 

Augustus R. Green, Ohio. 

Edward Butler, Missouri. 

H. S. Douglass, Louisiana. 

A. Dudley, Wisconsin. 

CoNAWAY Barbour, Kentuclky. 

Wm. J. Fuller, Rhode Island. 

Wm. Lambert, Michigan. 

J. Theodore Holly, New York. 

T. A. White, Indiana. 

John A. Warren, Canada. 



60 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



No. 4. 

The following memoirs of Yucatan, Venezuela, and the islands of Oozumel i 
and Barbuda are from reliable sources. 

STATE OF YUCATAN. 

The State of Yucatan comprehends the peninsula between the Gulf of 
Mexico and the Caribbean sea. It is at Cape Catoche, the extreme northeast 
point of Yucatan, that Mexico appears, before the irruption of the ocean, to have 
been joined to the island of Cuba, Cape San Antonio, the western end of the 
island, being 150 miles distant. 

The following historical sketch of Yucatan is what I compiled for Butterfield 
two years ago, when he was endeavoring to start the Ncav Orleans and Gulf 
line of steamers. It contains much of the information you need. 

YUCATAN. 

Columbus, in his first three voyages, did not reach the continent of America, 
but on his fourth ill-fated and final expedition, after sixty days' tempestuous 
weather, he discovered a small island, supposed to be that now called in the 
charts Bonaca. While on shore in this it^land he saw coming from the west a 
canoe of large size filled with Indians, who appeared to be a more civilized 
people than any he had yet encountered. In return to the inquiries of the 
Spaniards for gold, they pointed toward the west, and endeavored to persuade 
tliem to steer in that direction. Well would it have been for Columbus,*' 
says Mr. Irving, " had he followed their advice. Within a day or two he would 
have arrived at Yucatan, the discovery of Mexico and the other opulent coun- 
tries of New Spain would have followed, the Southern ocean would have been 
disclosed to him, and a succession of splendid discoveries would have shed fresh 
glories on his declining age, instead of sinking it amidst gloom, neglect, and 
disappointment." 

Four years afterward Juan Diaz de Solis held the same course to the island 
of Bonaca, and then steering to the west discovered the east coast of Yucatan. 

From the time of the conquest Yucatan existed as a distinct captain generalcy, 
not connected with Guatemala nor subject to the viceroy of Mexico. So it 
continued down to the Mexican revolution. 

The independence of Yucatan followed that of Mexico without any struggle, 
and actually by default of the mother country in not attempting to keep it in 
subjection. 

Before the conquest one language, called the Maya, extended throughout the 
whole peninsula, and the whole land of Maya was united under one head or 
supreme lord. 

This great chief had, for the seat of his monarchy, a very populous city, called 
Mayapan, and had under him a great many other lords, or caciques, who were 
bound to pay him tribute and serve him in war. 

These lords, too, had under them cities and many vassals. Becoming proud 
and ambitious, they rebelled against the power of the supreme lord, and be- 
sieged and destroyed the city of Mayapan. 

This took place about one hundred years before the arrival of the Spaniards, 
and may perhaps account, more or less, for the oingin of the mysterious palaces 
buried deep in the solitudes of Yucatan. 

To quote the eloquent words of Stephens : " The existence of most of these 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



61 



ruins was entirely unknown to the residents of the capital, but few had ever 
been visited by white inhabitants ; they were desolate and overgrown with trees. 
For a brief space the stillness that reigned around them was broken, and then 
they were again left to solitude and silence. Time and the elements are hasten- 
ing them to utter destruction. In a few generations their facades, covered with 
sculptured ornaments, already cracked and yawning, must fall, and become mere 
shapeless mounds. It has been the fortune of the author to step between them 
and the entire destruction to which they are destined ; and it is his hope to 
snatch from oblivion these perishing but still gigantic memorials of a mysterious 
people." 

The State of Yucatan is situated between latitude 17° 49' north, and 21° 37' 
north, and longitude 6'^ 33' and 12° 28' east of the city of Mexico. Its shores are 
washed on the west and north by the Gulf of Mexico, and on the east by the sea 
of the Antilles; on the south it is bordered by Central America, and by the 
English territory of the Belize, of which the boundary is the Rio Hondo, or 
Deep river. On the southwest is the former territory of Carmen, which has 
been divided between Yucatan and Tabasco. 

. Two depressed chains of mountains traverse the State, but in the main it is a 
level country, and generally covered with rank vegetation, either wild or culti- 
vated. Yucatan offers a peculiarly fine field to the explorer, and here are found 
some of the most curious and stupendous relics of the ancient inhabitants. 
Stephens and Catherwood obtained the interesting material for their publications 
in this State. There are extensive regions yet unexplored by white men. 

The character and variety of the productions of the State of Yucatan may 
be learned from the following account of the several districts: 

DISTRICT OF MERIDAj CAPITAL, MERIDA. 

Homed cattle, horses, mules, tallow, jerked beef, leather, salt, gypsum, hemp, 
raw and manufactured, straw hats, guitars, cigars, logwood, and corn. 

DISTRICT OF CAMPECHE; CAPITAL, CAMPECHE. 

Salt, logwood, rice, sugar, marble of good quality, and com. 

DISTRICT OF LERMA; CAPITAL, LERMA. 

Logwood, timber, rice, and fish-oil. 

DISTRICT OF VALLADOLID; CAPITAL, CITY OF VALLADOLID. 

Cotton, sugar, gum-copal, tobacco, cochineal, saffron, vanilla, cotton fabrics, 
yarns, &c., wax, honey, castor oil, horned cattle, hogs, skins, and corn. 

COAST DISTRICT; CAPITAL, CITY OF IZAMAL. 

Horned cattle, horses, mules, tallow, jerked beef, castor oil, hides, wax, honey, 
timber, indigo, hemp, raw and manufactured, straw, cigars, barilla, salt, and 
com. 

UPPER HIGHLAND DISTRICT; CAPITAL, CITY OF TEKAX. 

Horned cattle, horses, mules, hogs, sheep, skins, sugar, molasses, timber, rice, 
tobacco in leaf and manufactured, spirits, arrow-root, straw hats, cotton lace, 
ochre, flints, grindstones, and corn. 



62 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



LOWER HIGHLAND DISTRICT; CAPITAL, TEABO. 

Horned cattle, horses, mules, hogs, sheep, skins, tallow, dried beef, hemp, 
raw and manufactured, cotton lace, and corn. 

UPPER ROYAL ROAD DISTRICT; CAPITAL, JEQUELCHAKAN. 

Cattle, horses, mules, skins, tallow, dried beef, logwood, tobacco, sugar, rum, 
and corn. 

LOWER ROYAL ROAD DISTRICT; CAPITAL, MAXCANU. 

Homed cattle, horses, oil of palma christi, tobacco, hemp, fine straw hats, and 
corn. 

UPPER BENEFICIOS DISTRICT; CAPITAL, ICHENUL. 

Sugar, molasses, rum, tobacco, rice, pepper, gum, sarsaparilla, hats, hammocks,^ 
ebony, barilla, gypsum, skins, and corn. 

LOWER BENIFICIOS DISTRICT; CAPITAL, SOTULA. 

Horned cattle, horses, mules, hogs, skins, tallow, dried beef, and com. 

DISTRICT OF TIZIMIN; CAPITAL, TIZIMIN. 

Tortoise shell, skins, timber, logwood, India-rubber, incense, tobacco, achiote, 
(a rich yellow dye,) starch from the yucca, cotton, wax, honey, molasses, sugar, 
rum, castor oil, salt, amber, vanilla, hogs, cochineal, and corn. 

DISTRICT OF SEIBA-PLAYA; CAPITAL, SEIBA-PLAYA. 

Timber, rice, logrvood, and salt. 

BACALAR DISTRICT; CAPITAL, BACALAR. 

Logwood, valuable timber, inferior sugar, tobacco, rum, fine hemp known under 
the name of pita, resin. India-rubber, gum-copal, pimento, sarsaparilla, vanilla, 
gypsum, and corn. 

These, with all the tropical fruits, afford an astonishing variety of natural 
productions. 

Mining has never formed a branch of industry among the present race of in- 
habitants. There are traditions pointing to the existence of gold and silver 
mines in the State, but there is no disposition evinced to discover and work 
them. 

Salt is obtained on the island of the Mujeres. The island of Oozumel, on the 
east coast — which was the first land discovered by the Spaniai'ds on their 
voyage to Mexico — is now almost uninhabited. 

The extension of its coast is as follows : 

From Point Bacalar to Cape Oatoche 276 miles. 

From Cape Catoche to Punta Desconocida, in Campeche sound 250 " 

And from thence to the Bar of San Pedro 281 " 



In all 807 miles 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



63 



CITIES, POPULATION, ETC. 

Yucatan has four large cities in the interior, viz : 

1. Merida, capital of the State, is situated on the centre of a spacious plain at 
an elevation of twenty-four feet above the level of the sea, the breezes of which 
maintain a cool and pleasant temperature. 

Its population is 23.575, and its distance from Mexico 1,005 miles, and from 
Sisal twenty eight miles. 

2. Valladolid, at a distance of ninety-four miles from Merida, and 135 from 
Campeche, with a population of 2,389 inhabitants. 

3. Izamal, thirty-nine miles from Merida, has a population of 4,797 inhabitants. 

4. Tekax, fitfy-seven miles from Merida, with a population of 4,348 inhab- 
tan t8. 

PORTS. 

The most important ports are Sisal and Campeche. Sisal is in 21° 10' 
latitude, and 9° 06' longitude E. of Mexico; population, 942. 

Campeche, the most important of the two, is situated on the west coast of 
Yucatan, and contains a population of 15,000 inhabitants, the greater part 
of whom are connected with the logwood trade, of which it is estimated that 
650,000 quintals are exported annually, whilst the value of other articles of mer- 
chandise by the way of the English territory of Belize amounts annually to 
$2,110,000, all of which ought to be diverted into American channels. 

Ascension, on the east coast, opposite the island of Cozumel, is said to be a 
pretty good harbor. 

According to the calculation of Mr. D. G. Rigil, which appears the most free 
from exaggeration, there were produced in 1853 20,416,200 pounds of sugar 
and 306,243 barrels of aguadiente. 

With respect to the genequen, which may be called an industry peculiar to 
Yucatan, and of which are made sacks, hammocks, curtains, cables, &c., there 
are exported of it annually in its manufactured state 560,500 pounds. 

Other products are as follows : 

Consumption. Exportation. 

Maize 20,000,530 bushels. 16,350 bushels. 

Rice ... 1,750,000 pounds. 93,700 pounds. 

Frijoles 24,000,000 144,550 " 

Besides the articles above mentioned, there is an extensive production of 
cotton, tobacco, gum-copal, indigo, &c., &c., of which large amounts are ex- 
ported. Of course, these products might be doubled or trebled if the inhabi- 
tants would be at the pains of making good roads, which might be formed at 
small expense, from the level nature of the country, which in many places only 
requires the undergrowth to be cut down to admit the passage of mule trains. 

From the fact of there being no swamps, the climate, although hot, is uni- 
formly healthy. 

LAGUNA. 

The port of Carmen (Laguna de Terminos) may be considered as the best 
port in the Mexican part of the Gulf. Its entrance is by a wide-spread bar of 
soft mud ; the depth of water at low tide is thirteen feet, and fifteen at high 
tide. After passing the bar, vessels go to anchor near the island where the 
city of Carmen stands, and there the depth of water is from four to six fathoms. 
Vessels are sheltered in this port from all winds, and only a westerly hurricane 
can endanger the security of their anchorage. 



64 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



The city of Carmen lias about 5,000 inliabitants ; its aspect from tlie port is 
very picturesque and beautiful. Mariners, on their entering, may be guided by a 
fine fixed light in the Indian village opposite the place, which light can be 
seen fourteen miles at sea. The principal commerce of this town consists in the 
extraction of logwood, the annual exportation of which is from four to six hun- 
dred thousand quintals. The price generally ranges from 75 cents to $1 25, ac- 
cording to the demand, or the great or small supply in the market. 

The logwood is carried to Carmen in canoes of from four hundred to a thou- 
sand quintals burden, from Tabancuy, Chiboja, Candelaria, Chumpan, the Ranchos 
of the East, Palisada, and principally from all the ranchos on the river Usuma- 
cinta, passing through Palisada. The interior of the country is generally swampy, 
and its greatest production to this day is logwood. There is also in the interior 
of the country a large quantity of cedar, mahogany, and divers other kinds of 
fine and valuable timber, especially for ship-building; but, until now, they have 
not been an object of great extraction or exportation. 

There are at present ten or twelve establishments for the elaboration of sugar 
and aguadiente (sugar-cane rum,) and with time these articles may be produced 
in abundance for exportation. 

What is now considered as the territory of Carmen has about 20,000 
inhabitants. 

If the country was more thickly peopled, so as to facilitate labor for agricul- 
tural pursuits, it would probably be one of the richest tracts of country in the 
world. 

Steam communications could be established from Carmen to the rivers of 
Palisada, Chumpan, Candelaria, Mamantel, and Cano de Tabancuy, by deepen- 
ing a little the bars of these rivers, which could be done without any great out- 
lay, and with lucrative results to any one who would undertake the enterprise. 

The distance by sea from Vera Cruz to Laguna is two hundred and seventy 
miles; from Laguna to Frontera de Tabasco, by sea, forty-eight miles; or to 
San Juan Bautista one hundred and fourteen miles by sea and river. 

Statement of logwood expm'ted from the port of Laguiia. 



Quintals. 

1849 598,832 

1850 442,949 

1851 384,251 

1852 472,636 

1853 455,920 

1854 466,561 

1855 678,988 

1856 ..584,810 



Of the 584,810 quintals of logwood exported from Laguna in 1856, but 
36,859 quintals went to the United States. 

The state of Yucatan contains 47,253 square miles, just the area of Pennsyl- 
vania. Siliceo, in his Memoria, published in 1857, gives Rigil's computation of 
the inhabitants in 1853 as 668,623: cities, 5; incorporated towns, 7; haciendas 
1,388; raucherias, 2,040. 

M. Gilbert, an intelligent traveller who visited Yucatan in 1801, estimated 
the population at 500,000. 

Yucatan was, under Spain, a captain generalcy, distinct from the vice-royalty 
of Mexico ; it was called the Intendancy of Merida. 

Humboldt, in his New Spain, vol. 2, p. 244, writes of the intendancy of 
Merida, in 1808, as follows : 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



65 



" The peninsula of Yucatan, following exactly the direction of the current of 
rotation, is a vast plain intersected in its interior from northwest to southwest by 
a chain of hills of small elevation. The country which extends east from these 
hills towards the bays of the Ascension and Santo Spirito appears to be the 
[ most fertile, and was earliest inhabited. Since the settlement of the English 
I between Oneo and Rio Hondo, the government, to diminish the contraband trade, 
I concentrated the Spanish and Indian population in the part of the peninsula 
west from the mountains of Yucatan. Colonists are not permitted to settle on 
the eastern coast, on the banks of the Rio Bacalar and Rio Hondo ; all this vast 
country remains uninhabited, with the exception of the military post of Salamanca." 

" The intendancy of Merida (Yucatan) is one of the warmest and yet one of 
the healthiest of equinoctial America. This salubrity ought undoubtedly to be 
attributed in Yucatan, as well as at Coro, Cumana, and the island of Manguerita, 
to the extreme dryness of the atmosphere. On the whole coast, from Compula, 
or from the mouth of the Rio de San Francisco to Cape Catoche, the navigator 
does not find a single spring of fresh water. On the northern coast of Yucatan, 
at the mouth of the Rio Sargortas, 400 yards from the shore, springs of fresh 
water spout up from amidst the salt water." 

The following table of the temperature of Merida, the capital, situated about 
30 miles from the coast, I ma de up from a table to be founds in the appendix to 
Stephens's Yucatan, vol. 1, p. 425 : 

Noon, highest. Noon, lowest. Noon, average. 



January, 1843 80° 74° 77° 

February 81 74 78 

March 85 81 82 

April 86 80 84 

May 87 81 85 

June 88 84 87 

July 88 82 86 

August 88 85 86 

September 86 84 85 

October 86 76 82 

November 84 73 79 

December..-- 88 73 77 



In the interior the temperature may be somewhat higher, but there is no great 
variation. 

Stephens's Yucatan, xol. 1, p. 152, says : "Throughout Yucatan 'el campo' 
or the country it is considered unhealthy in the rainy season, which begins in 
June and ends in October. 

"Among all the haciendas Uxmal had a reputation pre-eminent for its un- 
liealthiness. Every person who had been at w^ork among the ruins had been 
obliged by sickness to leave them. Mr. Catherwood has had sad experience, 
and this unhealthiness was not confined to strangers. The Indians suffered 
every season from fevers. Many of them Avere at this time ill, and the major 
domo had been obliged to go away." 

It must be remembered that Messrs. Stephens's and Catherwood's experience 
was principally among ruins, where, in any country, but more especially in the 
tropics, the air is heavy with noisome vapors produced by decay and the rank 
vegetation which always flourishes in those localities. 

From my personal knowledge of the tierra caliente throughout the entire Pa- 
cific coast of Mexico, and on the Mexican Gulf coasts down as far as Tabasco, 
(which is the extent of my travels) and from what I have learned about Yuca- 
tan, I consider the latter the most healthy, even for the white man. I have 
never heard of the vomito in Yucatan. Perhaps the ordinary fever of the 

H. Rep. Com. 148 5 



66 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



country may, in certain districts and in certain seasons, assume a malignant 
type among strangers. But in these countries what is death to the whites is 
life to the negro. 

There is really less statistical and general information about Yucatan than of 
any other Mexican State. A great portion of the interior is yet an unexplored , 
wilderness, and yet, singular to relate, but three of the twenty-three Mexican 
States are more populous than Yucatan. Of course the great mass of the popu- , 
lation is Indian. The relative proportion of whites, mixed races and Indians, 
I have not been able to obtain accurately. The proportion of whites and mixed 
races principally settled near the coasts is not large.* 

The Spaniards found the Indians of Yucatan equal, if not superior, to the 
Aztecs, and far ahead of the Cuba Indians in civilization. They were warlike 
and brave, and the first attempt of the Spaniards to conquer Yucatan or Maya 
was a failure. To this day the natives do not acknowledge the name of Yuca- 
tan or themselves as Yucatecos, the common Spanish term. They know only 
Maya. As a whole, however, the natives have become, I would not say de- 
moralized, but tamed down, generally docile, servile and ignorant; Avith more 
intellect, but in the main like the general run of our negro slaves. In certain 
remote districts the Indians, it may be said, have maintained their independence 
to this day. And it is a curious fact that there are, at the present time, com- 
munities resembling somewhat the oldest republics of Greece, when the indi- 
vidual was merged in the citizen; or perhaps they might more properly be con- 
sidered exemplifications of the principles of Fourier. There are communities 
of Indians in Yucatan where lands and everything else are owned in common, 
and each contributes a share to the commonwealth. There is a common cook- 
house, where, at certain hours, each citizen goes for the food of his ftimily and 
bears it home to his habitation. — (See Stephens, vol. 2, p. 14.) 

Previous to the independence of Yucatan from Spain, 1821, the Indians were 
all held by the Spaniards as slaves. There were also a few negro slaves in this 
State, and fugitive negro slaves from other ports of Mexico and from Cuba oc- 
casionally found their way to the peninsula. The condition of afiairs between 
the white race and the Indians, or between master and slave, was, in other days, 
considered quite happy — very much of the patriarchal order — but of late years 
a war of castes has raged in certain parts of Yucatan. f 

The State of Yucatan differs very materially from the other Mexican States 
geologically. The peninsula is for the most part low and flat. The highest 
surface of its hills or low mountains is but little over 4,000 feet. It is destitute 
of living springs, rivers and lakes. The clay strata is probably wanting, as the 
soil will not hold water for any great length of time. The rainy season pre- 
vails from June till November, and then comes four or five months of what is 
called the dry season. During these months the inhabitants for the most part 
are dependent on norias or wells, J usually deep, or aguados, which are large arti- 
ficial ponds filled during the rainy season. In some sections there are also natu- 
ral hollows in the rocks which fill during the rainy season and furnish an ade 
quate supply to ranches and towns through the dry season. These norias and 
aguados are found all through Sonora and Chihuahua. On opening a copper 



* When the civil war was raging in Yucatan in 1848 the whites were estimated at 50,000. 
This probably included the mixed race. Of foreign whites and Creoles I do not believe 
there are 5,000 in the country. 

f I am somewhat doubtful whether the civil war that we have heard of at various pe- 
riods during the last twenty years can be called strictly a war of castes. There was quite 
a lengthy debate on the President's message in 1848, proposing the temporary occupation 
of Yucatan in order to protect the whites from the Indians. — (See Congressional Globe, 
May 4, 1848.) I can gather a few grains of truth and useful information only relative to 
Yucatan from that debate. 

J Some of these wells are supposed to reach unde ground rivers. 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



67 



mine in tlie eastern part of Arizona, I built aguados wliicli supplied tlie mining 
company with water nine months of the year. 

Stephens has considerable to say about the scarcity of water in Yucatan, the 
norias and the aguados. He states that in the dry season the watering places 
are frequently a league from the towns. At the ranch of Shawil, three or four 
months in the year they go half a mile under ground for water. For remarks 
of Stephens on these points, see vol. 1, pp. 248, 250, 333; vol. 2, pp. 12, 14, 77, 
83, 87. 

The scarcity of water in Yucatan, as I understand it, is just sufficient to 
cause the inhabitants to live together either in large or small communities. 
There is no such thing as individual squatting over the country anywhere and 
everywhere. The soil is good and the vegetation rank throughout the country. 

You have a very good list of the productions of Yucatan in the printed pages. 
Corn and hogs flourish all over the country; horses and cattle abound in every 
section where water is abundant. 

The best of sugar-cane can be produced in great abundance. The entire coast 
between Campeche and Tabasco is devoted to the culture of sugar. — (Stephens, 
vol. 2, p. 171.) 

The same may be said of cotton. There has been very little inducement to 
cultivate cotton. Considerable of the article has been produced in the neighbor- 
hood of Valladolid, but the natives made poor work in cleaning it, and two-thirds 
of its value is absorbed in freight. Even common roads, which are easily made 
in that county, saying nothing about railroads, would change all this. Yucatan 
is pre-eminently an agricultural, wood-chopping, dye-extracting, hog-raising 
country. It has no mines, and here again it differs materially from other parts 
of Mexico. 

There must be something particularly favorable to the increase of population 
in Yucatan. In no other part of Mexico, and perhaps of Central America, are 
such evidences that a dense population existed in ancient days as are found in 
Yucatan. Arbitrary causes have prevented the natural flow and settlement of 
population in that State since the conquest by the Spaniards, and 1 believe the 
best portion yet remains to he explored and populated. From the central part 
of the State to the Caribbean sea and to Guatemala, the State is unexplored by 
white people, except here and there a point on the coast. Near the western 
coast, even now an Indian town gets to be over-populated, and a few of the more 
enterprising take their machetts and cut their way through the rank growth of 
vegetation to some other favorable locality, and forthwith another ranch or vil- 
lage springs up as if by magic. 

Some 25 years ago a solitary Indian was prospecting for a field, and, finding 
a good locality, he made a clearing, and, in so doing, he struck a running stream 
very near the surface; he followed the stream until he came to the water gush- 
ing from the rock. In a very short time a large population, some 6,000, settled 
around this water, and called the place Becan-chan, (Running Well.) — (Stephens, 
vol. 2, p. 231.) 

Iturbide, quite a large village towards the interior, was populated in five years. 

It has been generally supposed that Yucatan affords no safe harbors or 
anchorage which would facilitate commerce. Sisal, on the northern coast, is 
the port of the capital, Merida. It is an open roadstead, and unsafe in a norther. 
Campeche, the principal port, is not much better. Bat there was a, British 
survey of the coast of Yucatan in 1845, I think; and this survey gives a fine 
harbor for vessels of any size, under the island of Mujeres, where they may 
ride at anchor protected from winds in every direction. The harbors of Ascen- 
sion and Espiritu bays, on the eastern coast, are represented by this survey to 
be very good. That of Espiritu bay will contain a fleet of the largest frigates 
and war steamers.* 



*''A copy of this British survey is to be found in the bureau at Washington. 



68 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



Taking into consideration the peculiarities of Yucatan, its geographical posi- 
tion, in a great measure isolated, its geological features, climate, soil, productions, 
inhabitants, and great extent of unoccupied country which can be had for the 
cultivation, I have thought this State one of the best and most available portions 
of the earth upon which to carry out an extensive system of negro colonization 
by the United States. 

1. The negroes and natives will at once affiliate. 

2. The expense of placing the negro in a condition to maintain himself will 
be very light. 

3. Owing to the peculiar geological character of the country the negroes will 
be forced to acknowledge the rights and demands of society, though that society 
may be of a primitive order. 

4. Being out of the main line of travel by land and by sea, and having few 
harbors, it may be that in Yucatan the negro will be left to work out his destiny 
undisturbed by the neighboring white race. 

For various reasons I have thought other parts of Mexico were not desirable 
for negro colonization purposes. Certain districts of the tierra caliente on the 
Pacific and Gulf coasts are well enough adapted to the negro so far as the cli- 
mate and productions are concerned. But negro slavery in those districts never 
was a success under the Spaniards. I have written considerable on this subject. 
The following is from tlie last number of the Mexican papers published more 
than a year ago : 

In 1530 considerable numbers of negro slaves were found in the State of 
Vera Cruz. As the country was explored and occupied by the Spaniards, this 
class of laborers came into demand, principally, to work the sugar plantations. 
Hence, in certain portions of the States of Vera Cruz, Puebla, Oajaca, Tabasco, 
Chiapas, Guerrero and Colima, the valleys of Cuernavaca, Cuautla, &c., negro 
slaves in considerable numbers were employed for upward of two and a half 
centuries. 

It cannot be said, however, that negro slavery in Mexico was ever carried out 
extensively, or proved much of a success. From the first of the eighteenth 
century to the latter part of the same, the institution was at the height of all the 
prosperity it ever enjoyed in that country ; and the number of negro slaves at 
any one time during this period could not have exceeded 100,000. 

The natives of Mexico, in numbers and hardihood, proved too much, even for 
the iron rigor of Spanish rule, and although millions were destroyed, enough 
remained — probably as many as could be managed — to serve the general pur- 
poses of labor throughout New Spain. 

In the early part of the nineteenth century we find the institution of negro 
slavery in Mexico tending to rapid decay. In the first place, the expense and 
risk of introducing negroes into those sections not immediately contiguous to Vera 
Cruz, had considerably increased ; the Indians evinced more than ordinary 
restiveness, which had a bad effect on the negro ; and the negro slaves raised in 
the country, with their descendants by the Indians, called Zambos, were 
becoming vicious and unmanageable. Consequently, the demand for negroes fell 
off, and in certain sections measures were adopted to emancipate the negro slaves 
and work them under a system of free labor. 

This experiment was fully and successfully tried on some of the largest sugar 
plantations. In the valleys of Cuernavaca and Cuautla Amilpas the principal 
proprietors liberated a certain number of their slaves annually, and encouraged 
them to remain on the estates as free laborers. So successful did this system 
prove, that, on many of the largest estates in Cuernavaca, there was not a single 
negro slave in the year 1808. The policy of this measure became still more ap- 
parent in 1810, for as soon as the revolution broke out those planters who had not 
adopted the system of gradual emancipation were abandoned at once by their 
slaves, and forced, in some instances, to give up working their estates ; while 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



69 



those who had provided themselves, in time, with a mixed caste of free laborers, 
retained, even during the worst of times, a snfficient number of hands to enable 
low them to cultivate their lands, although upon a reduced scale. 

The labor of the estates in Mexico worked under the free system proceeded 
without compulsion, anything like coercive measures being scarcely known. 
But such a mixture of negroes, Indians and Zambos was productive of a very 
low order of civilization. 

We find in " Ward's Mexico," written in 1827, a comparison made between 
the result of free labor on suger estates in Mexico, and slave labor on sugar 
estates in Cuba, as follows : 

"One hundred and fifty slaves are employed, in the Island of Cuba, upon a plantation 
capable of producing one thousand cases, or 16,000 arrobas^"' of sugar (vide Humboldt's 
Essai Politique sur Vile de Cuba,) while in the valley of Cuautla, one hundred and fifty 
free laborers are found sufficient for a hacienda, which yields from 32 to 40,000 arrobas. 
Thus (supposing the expense in other respects to be the same,) in the one case, the produce 
of each individual would be 2,666 lbs., and in theother 5,332 lbs., or even 6,666 lbs., taking 
the maximum of 40,000 arrobas. The correctness of this calculation depends of course 
upon the comparative fertility of the soil of the Island of Cuba, and in the valley of 
Cuautla Amilpas, respecting which I am not competent to give an opinion. There is no 
reason, however, to suppose that there is any superiority, in the soil of Cuautla, sufficiently 
great to account for so marked a difference in the amount of the sugar, raised by an equal 
number of laborers ; for the elevation of the valley above the level of the ocean rendeis it 
impossible to apply Humboldt's estimate of extraordinary fertility of Vera Cruz to the 
plantations of Cuautla or Cuernavaca. ' ' 

In view of the foregoing, let it not be said that the experiment of free negro 
labor in the tropics, on a large scale, was never successfidly tried. 

It is a curious fact, and worthy of note, that the process of gradually abolish- 
ing negro slavery commenced simultaneously in New England and the Spanish 
colonies of Mexico, for precisely the same cause, namely, the institution had 
become unprofitable. 

In NcAv England slavery was abolished by law, while in Mexico the mea- 
sures taken to this end were voluntary on the part of the Spanish planters. 

Here we find the cold and sterile north and the hot and fruitful tropics, 'the 
cool, calculating, and thrifty NeAv Englander, and the extravagant, showy, hard- 
hearted Spaniard, giving in their evidence against negro slavery and abolishing 
it as an unprofitable institution. 

Before the Mexican revolution had terminated, in 1821, nearly every vestige 
of negro slavery in Mexico had disappeared. Many of the slaves fled, others 
were liberated, and when Guerrero issued his decree of immediate and univer- 
sal emancipation in 1829, there were not 10,000 negroes and mnlattoes held as 
slaves throughout the entire republic to take advantage of the liberty thus 
decreed. 

In the northern tier of the Mexican States, in Durango, San Luis Potosi, 
Jalisco, Michoacan, and Qneretaro, the negro was rarely seen except as the ser- 
vant of a Spaniard. Considerable numbers of mnlattoes are found in the State 
of Guerrero. Some remain in the States of Oajaca, Tabasco, and Chiapas. 
The term Loho is generally applied to these mnlattoes, from the peculiar tint of 
their complexion, which resembles that of the Mexican wolf called Lobo. In 
Vera Cruz and vicinity a few negroes and quite a number of mnlattoes, known 
as Jarochos, are concentrated. In 1803, Humboldt, in his classification of the 
inhabitants of the city of Mexico, gave 10,000 mnlattoes. This race has disap- 
peared, and the pure negro is not to be found on any of the table-lands of the coun- 
try. The dry and rarefied atmosphere of those regions is destructive to his race. 

We do not believe there is enough negro blood in all Mexico to make 20,000 



* An arroba is 25 pounds 



70 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



pure negroes, notwitlistanding a prominent legislator very gravely remarked to 
us recently that he calculated one-third of the Mexican population was of the 
pure negro race, which would give about 2,500,000 negroes to the republic. 

The question of re-establishing or extending negro slavery over Mexico, which • 
is now a prominent subject of agitation in the public mind, can be disposed of 
in very few words. 

The Cordilleras occupy the great central portion of Mexico, leaving a strip of 
low land on either coast, narrow and nregular in outline, known as the tierra 
caliente; and these low lands are cut up at frequent intervals by mountain 
ridges and spurs — the whole being a volcanic formation. Now the apostles of 
the "irrepressible conflict" doctrine must make it appear, in the first place, that 
the slavery propagandists can cause the Mexican Cordilleras, the backbone of the 
country, Avith all the detached spurs and ridges, to sink into the earth, and leave 
in their place low, hot, moist and rich plains. Next, the irrepressibles must 
prove that the slavery extensionists can speedily annihilate some seven or eight 
millions of Mexicans, who, in their turn, will fight for freedom to the last drop 
of their blood. And lastly, it must be made to appear that the slave trade can 
be opened, and the price of good field hands reduced to S200. All this being 
accomplished, slavery extension into Mexico might stand some chance. 

The great extent of unexplored and unoccupied land in Yucatan belongs to 
the Mexican government, which donates a certain amount to any one who will 
settle upon and cultivate the same. The land reverts to the government when- 
ever the settler abandons and ceases to cultivate it ; but the settler can sell his 
right to the land and his improvements, and the vendee is recognized as the 
owner by the government, and thus the property may pass from one to another, 
so long as its settlement and cultivation are maintained. 

I believe an arrangement can be made with the Mexican government^ — and 
without paying anything for it — to permit almost any number of our negroes to 
enter upon and possess the unoccupied lands of Yucatan under the existing 
public land law of Mexico. 

The following are accessible authorities on Yucatan : 

Stephens's Yucatan. 
Humboldt's New Spain. 
Brantz Mayer. 
Ward's Mexico. 

Silecer, Memoria del Ministro de Fomento. 
Encyclopedia Popular, by Jesus Hermosa. 

The above authorities I have at hand. At the Geographical Society's room 
in New York I could doubtless find considerable definite and valuable informa- 
tion respecting Yucatan. 

VENEZUELA. 

The northern half of Venezuela, from Cumana on the east to the Gulf of 
Maracaibo is extremely productive. Even on the sides and in the valleys of the 
Andes there are coffee estates, producing a berry only exceeded in value by the 
best Mocha or Java, while the rich valleys of the Aragua and other warm 
lands more to the south produce a superior article, and yield as rich a return, 
especially at the prices now prevailing, as any known crop. 

In order to understand this matter of coffee-raising in Venezuela, I must men- 
tion that nearly all the coffee trees of the country are shaded in most cases by 
a large tree called the buchare, which affords the moderate protection from the 
sun necessary to a perfect ripening of the berry. These estates, in many cases, 
are over a half century old, and were carefully planted. A good estate con- 
sists of a hundred and fifty thousand trees, and with fair attention will pro- 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



71 



dvice 200,000 lbs. of coffee, worth at present prices some $28,000 in Venezuela, 
or $40,000 here. The attention required is not great, and the principal labor is 
in gathering, which is done by men, women, and children ; and the only skill 
exercised is in hulling and preparing the berry for market. 

A little attention to the sources of our coffee supply will show that the coun- 
tries producing the best article are pretty much in the same latitude, and refer- 
ence to the soils will prove that Venezuela possesses peculiar advantages in this 
respect. 

I do not hesitate to say, after my experience in testing the higher grades of 
Venezuela coffee, and especially those raised on what are called the cold lands, 
that they are quite equal to Java, and perhaps, as a general thing, surpass the 
choice Costa Rica now occasionally found in our markets. 

As to the profit there can be no doubt. These lands are healthy, and near 
the seaports on the Caribbean, now visited by the merchantmen of England, 
France, and the United States. 

As nearly as I could ascertain the extent of the present coffee estates of Vene- 
zuela, they contain to-day near, or quite, sixty millions of trees, capable, at a low 
estimate, of yielding one pound each, and consequently producing in the aggre- 
gate sixty million pounds coffee, worth at the ports of the republic eight mil- 
lions Spanish dollars. 

Of course, it is understood that, at the present time and for some time past, 
their estates are seriously deranged by the civil war prevailing, which prevents 
their cultivation, and runs the proprietors to the larger cities of Venezuela, or 
compels them to leave the country entirely. In fact, the condition of the coun- 
try is such that all property will soon be without a particle of value ; and it is 
for this reason that the masses of Venezuela would hail with delight any sub- 
stantial evidence of sympathy from abroad. But especially would that portion 
desiring a constitutional government expect, in any position, evidence of aid and 
sympathy from us, the peace and prosperity they have long expected and 
prayed for. 

With a return to peace, and such an organization of the labor of the country 
as would occur in a few years of repose, the coffee crop could be increased to 
double the crop of former good years, say, to one million quintals, (a quintal is 
100 lbs.;) while with a population from us of 100,000 black laborers, the produc- 
tion would far exceed the consumption of the United States. We must not lose 
sight of the fact that the portion of this great country especially adapted to coffee, 
sugar, cotton, and cocoa, is as large as Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and 
Louisiana; none of it 150 miles from the sea, and most of it within 50 miles of 
a port on the sea, or one of the rivers flowing south into the Oronoco. 

The sugar-cane of Venezuela is stronger than that of Louisiana, but requires 
more skill both in planting and crushing to make it productive. The country is 
supplied with estates sufficient to furnish the inhabitants with all they need, but 
at the present time, owing to those civil commotions and the high tariff, the 
article is sold at exorbitant sales, and only a few of the best estates are worked. 

Cotton. — There is no mistake about the cotton of Venezuela ; the best portion 
for the purpose of cotton culture is the centre, north, or the streams, such as the 
Ajfure and others flowing into the Oronoco. 

English agents have carefully examined this country and reported, but their 
reports are not nearly as full as those of the Cotton Supply Association of Vene- 
zuela, who are in possession of all the facts, and will publish them as soon as 
our matters favor the cultivation of cotton in Venezuela. Information on this 
subject (historical) is on file at the State Department. 

Cocoa. — One of the productions of Venezuela, famed in France and Spain, 
and exceedingly profitable to the proprietors, is the cocoa; no other country has 
yet supplied its equal, and the estates can be extended with immense profit. 
You can form some idea of the present profit when I inform you that it is selling 



72 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



at the ports of Venezuela for fifty pesos, about S37 50 per 100 pounds, (a quin- 
tal,) and does not cost 15 cents per 100 pounds to raise it. 

You can learn the political condition of the country from the State Department, 
or rather you can see the difficulties that at present embarrass the people from 
my despatches. My own opinion is, that on the United States and the United 
States alone can they rely for that aid Avhich will once more place them on the 
road to prosperity. With a delightful climate, a country very healthy, except 
on the sea shore, with productions required so extensively by us and which they 
can raise in competition with any country, it seems strange that it has been so 
long neglected, or that Central America, not so highly favored by nature, not 
as well situated for trade with the world, and especially the United States, and, 
in fact, more remote and isolated in every respect, should have received so mucli 
more attention. 

The common people of Venezuela are quiet and docile, not rapid, but dis- 
posed to moderate labor ; degraded principally by these internal discords, and 
impoverished to an extraordinary degree, they feel the necessity of exertion, and 
will willingly return to labor on the estates and plantations whenever they can 
feel sure of protection. 

The higher classes are intelligent and enterprising; have free estates, love the 
country, live like the people of the south; have pretty much the same political 
views, without being extreme, and being tloid almost ruined by their continued 
efforts to rule the masses, who protest against the impositions of the military 
and political revolutionists, seem also willing to accept any aid from England, 
France, or the United States, that will insure them the quiet enjoyment of their 
property and estates. 

When I hear anything from Caraccas concerning the two parties waning for 
the control of the country, I will communicate it to you; meanwhile be assured 
there is more to be gained from such a country with such productions, than from 
the untried and desolate lands, rich though they be, of Chiriqui and other ob- 
tainable districts of Central and South America. 

THE ISLAND OF COZUMEL. 

The island of Cozumel is in the Caribbean sea, fifteen miles from the eastern 
shore of Yucatan. It is in latitude 20° 30' north and longitude 87° west from 
Greenwich. Accounts as to its size vary; it must be about thirty miles long 
and eight miles wide. 

The statements relative to Cozumel by the first European voyagers represent 
it as swarming with Indians who were "very ingenious." They built of stone 
and mortar, and practiced some of the arts of civilized life, being much in ad- 
vance of the natives of Cuba and the other West India islands. They had 
many temples and teocalis, some of which were massive and of pleasing ap- 
pearance. 

The island was found to be beautiful, fertile, abounding in all the tropical 
productions, wild waterfowl and the smaller animals. It was a great place of 
resort for religious enthusiasts from Yucatan. 

But the Spaniards were the besom of destruction, and nowhere has its pro- 
gress been attended with devastation so complete as upon this once thickly 
populated and happy "Island of Swallows," or, in the Indian tongue, Cozumel. 

The account of Juan de Grijalva's discovery of this island in 1518. (See 
Kerr's Narrative of Voyages, vol. 3.) An itinerary of this voyage was also 
published in Paris in 1838. 

Stephens visited Cozumel in 1841. He skirted along the northern end in a 
canoe down the western shore to within ten miles of the southern extremity, 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



73 



when lie landed on the "desolate island of Coznmel," at a ranch recently aban- 
doned by a Spaniard who had commenced the cultivation of* cotton. Owing to 
a mutiny among his Indian laborers, he was obliged to give up the attempt. — 
(VoL 2, p. 271.) 

Stephens says, (vol. 2, p. 272:) "The whole island was overgrown with trees, 
and, except along the shore or within the clearing around the hut, it was im- 
possible to move in any direction without cutting a path." 

Owing to the difficulty of making his way through the rank vegetation that 
covered the whole island, Stephens did not penetrate into the interior, but limi- 
ted his observations to several views on the shore. 

Speaking of the abandoned ranch, Stephens says: "In the afternoon we 
walked over the clearing, which was covered with a fine plantation of cotton, 
worth, as the patron said, several hundred dollars, with the pods open and blow- 
ing away.* 

"There was a well of pure and abundant water on the ranch shaded by large 
cocoa-nut trees." 

Again Stephens says, (vol. 2, p. 283:) "The canoe entered a cove embosomed 
among noble trees. The water was twenty feet deep, and so clear that the bot- 
tom was distinctly visible, and from one end ran a creek which the patron said was 
navigable for canoes into the centre of the island where it expanded into a lake." 

At the conclusion of his account of the island, Stephens says : "There was no 
place on our whole journey that we left with more regret." 

Stephens says, (vol. 2, p. 271:) "One George Fisher had appeared on the 
island, the purchaser of six leagues or eighteen miles. He came with surveyors 
and set up his crosses, in order to make the island known to the commercial world." 

This George Fisher was a Hungarian with an Anglicized name ; a wandering 
adventurer. What became of him or his purchase I have learned nothing. I 
do not believe he had any money to pay for lands, and he probably obtained 
from the Mexican government a contingent right to colonize and cultivate a 
certain portion of the island. The enterprise was doubtless abandoned long ago. 

At the present time the island of Oozumel is not known to be inhabited by 
a living soul. The island was once populous and fruitful, but it is now aban- 
doned to the desolation of nature, and only awaits the reviving touch of enter- 
prise and civilization to start it into new life, beauty, and usefulness. 

From all accounts I should judge the island of Cozumel to be better watered 
and more generally fertile and productive than the main land. Also that being 
more within the influence of the sea air, its temperature is lower and its climate 
healthier than that of Yucatan, to a degree even that makes it not only tolerable 
but desirable for the white man. 

Does the island of Oozumel afford one good harbor ? This is an important 
point in estimating the value and availabihty of the island. Commerce has as 
yet developed none of the advantages possessed by Oozumel. The British 
coast survey of this region, in 1846, of which there is a copy in the Ooast 
Survey department in Washington, says : " There is good anchorage off the 
northeast point of the island of Oozumel." 

Mr. Stephens landed at but one place on the island, and that was near the 
abandoned ranch of which mention has been made. He paid no attention to 
harbor facilities. 

The ancient accounts do not mention any difficulty in finding harbors and 
landing upon the island. Oortez, on his first expedition to Mexico, must have 
remained at this island with his whole fleet several days. He landed his forces 
and reviewed them there. He destroyed some of the idols of the natives and 



* I am inclined to believe that the whole island of Cozumel is adapted to the cultm-e of 
sugar and the finest kind of Sea Island cotton. 



74 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



erected Cliristian altars in tlieir places. This was in the season of northers — 
the winter of 1520-'21. 

There are sea captains in Isew York who have landed on Oozmnel and 
watered their vessels from the pnre springs which they say ahonnd on the coast. 
One of these captains speaks of a good harbor on the western coast of the 
island. There is no knowing what thorough explorations and, perhaps, some 
artificial means, might develop in the way of harbor facilities at the island of 
Cozumel. The small island of Mujeres, a little north of Cozumel, is said to 
have a really fine harbor. 

EDW'D E. DUNBAE. 

BARBUDA. 

I learned, from a conversation with the Episcopal clergyman at St. Thomas, 
that he has visited this little island, (northeast of St. Thomas,) containing not 
more than five hundred inhabitants, all negroes. He was much interested in 
them, and described the colony as a perfect success ; and this after seeing nearly 
all the British West Indies. He said, I think, that the island belonged to a 
single proprietor, who was determined to give the experiment of free labor 
(black) a fair trial. He was liberal and considerate, portioned out the land, at- 
tended to its judicious cultivation, rewarded and encouraged in various ways 
those who were industrious, and showed a disposition to improve, gave them all 
opportunities for education and good religious privileges, and was as careful to 
root out every feature tending towards idleness, decay, and degeneracy. 

I am sorry that I cannot recollect this pastor's name. He has tended on the 
British West Indies a quarter of a century, and is well posted on everything 
pertaining to them. He is also a man of liberal views, and I have no doubt 
would form a valuable correspondent. 



No. 5. 

THE ISTHMUS OF CHIRIQUI. 

The province of Chiriqui, in the republic of new Granada, is situated between 
the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the province of Veragua and the republic of 
Costa Rica. It gives its name to the isthmus which divides at that point the tAvo 
great oceans, and it is the connecting link between South and Central America. 
Having a fine and healthy climate, rich and productive lands, and great mineral 
wealth, it offers inducements of no ordinary character to peaceful and industri- 
ous emigrants. 

Situated in the great route of commerce between the continents and islands 
of the Pacific, and the shores of Europe and America, which are watered by the 
Atlantic, its future, when its splendid harbors are connected by a railroad, must 
be one of unprecedented prosperity. 

Large tracts of land in this inviting country have been granted for, and are 
held by the Chiriqui Improvement Company, for colonization purposes. 

By the constitution and laws of the country equal civil, religious, and political 
rights are established, without distinction of color or race. Emigrants, on their 
arrival, are immediately naturalized citizens, but are not subject to military duty 
until they have been twenty years in the country, unless to repel foreign in- 
vasion of their homes. They are exempt from all taxation, except the local 
municipal taxes which they themselves assist in establishing. 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



75 



The following papers give interesting accounts of tliis region of country : 

Dr. John Evans, the geologist sent out by the United States government to 
examine the coal formation of Cliiriqui, in a letter to his family thus speaks of 
this country : 

Chiriqui Lagoon, Septemher 16, 1860. 

I have just returned from a trip of twelve days up the Clianguinola river. 
Found eight seams of coal, several of them of excellent quality and bum freely. 
There will not be the least difficulty in making this coal accessible to ship navi- 
gation. The bottom lands bordering the river are quite level, and the soil as 
rich as I ever met with in any of my travels ; it is from four to twelve feet in 
thickness, a sandy clay loam, with a large percentage of vegetable matter. All 
the tropical fruits are found on its banks ; oranges, limes, lemons, pineapples, 
bananas, breadfruit, alligator pear, prunes, dates, &c., all growing wild. Vanilla 
beans are also found in abundance. Mahogany trees, cocoa-nut, and several 
valuable trees for commerce, in addition, are found convenient to navigation. 

The weather is delightful; the thermometer ranges from 69^ to 80°; sea 
breezes during the day, land breezes during the night ; blankets have always 
been found comfortable towards morning. The coal deposit is inexhaustille, 
and accessible to navigation ; the sandstones, clays, and limestones associated 
with it ; also the characteristic fossils are found everywhere on the lagoon and 
its tributaries. 

My health has never been better; I have not had a sick hour, and consider 
this country as the garden of the world. Yankee enterprise is alone wanting to 
make it a perfect paradise. 

It has filled me Avitii snrprise to find that nearly all the natives, Jamaicans, 
&c., speak English. It is the most universal tongue. 

In our recent trip to the Changuinola river, in addition to our ship fare, we 
killed two wild turkeys, other large birds, two monkeys, &c. I must confess 
to some reluctance to eating monkeys ; they are too Imman ; but the meat is 
excellent, like young chickens. 

JOHN EVANS, M. D., 
United States Geologist Chlriqid Exploration and Survey. 

Dr. Evans, in his official report, also says : 

Rich specimens of gold, in quartz and black sand, copper, iron, platinum, 
and other valuable minerals, have been discovered in various localities ; agates, 
jasper, opals, diamonds, similar to those used in Chinese ornaments, were found. 
Specimens of the coals, minerals, and precious stones have been brought home, 
and will be deposited in the Smithsonian Institution, or any place which may 
be designated by the Secretary of the Navy, for examination. 

HEALTHFULNESS OF THE CLIMATE. 

There is no prevailing disease between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, on 
the Isthmus of Cliiriqui. During the whole of my explorations of the shore 
line of the lagoon, the islands adjacent, the various rivers tributary, and in 
crossing and recrossing from the Atlantic to the Pacific, not a single member of 
my party, either the men from the Brooklyn, or natives, was sick. It is true 
that at the unfavorable locality of the " Mission House," at the mouth of Fish 
creek, with a marsh back of the settlement filled with water af every rain, and 
covered with vegetable matter in a state of decomposition, washed down from 
the adjacent mountains, constantly accumulating, and subjected to the heat of a 
tropical sun, cases of intermittent fever occurred ; but they readily yielded to a 



76 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



few doses of quinine. Fatal cases, if any ever occur, are very rare ; a similar 
unftxvorable locality in any section of country would produce as great, if not 
greater deleterious effects. My own hammock was swung for ten nights under 
a palm-leaf roof elevated ten feet from the ground, with the land breeze passing 
over this swamp, and I suffered no inconvenience, and not a moment ill-health. 

The rainy season is a succession of sunshine and showers. If it rains in the 
morning, it is usually fair in the afternoon ; and if it rains in the afternoon and 
night, it is bright in the morning, and until three or four o'clock in the after- 
noon. Sea breezes prevail during the day, and land breezes at night. The 
thermometer varies from 67*^ to 87^ during the year, and towards morning it is 
so cool that a blanket was comfortable every night during my sojourn on this 
isthmus. 

PRODUCTIONS. 

In describing the formation of the soil, I have already briefly alluded to the 
productions of the country, but it will not be out of place to refer to special 
localities and their rich producing qualities. 

On the Atlantic side there are many streams flowing down from the mountains 
having bordering valleys; but the most beautiful and extensive are those of the 
Cricamola and of the Changuinola rivers ; these valleys vary from ten to twenty 
miles in width, their soil inexhaustible. Indigenous to it are cotton, tobacco, 
coffee, cocoa, sugar-cane, rice, and all the tropical fruits. These do not grow 
by single crops, but in succession throughout the year. Under the hand of the 
cultivator four crops a year could readily be gathered, and of qualities inferior 
to none that earth produces. 

Dr. Robert McDowall, a Scotch gentleman, who has resided thirty years in 
Chiriqui, wrote as follows : 

^ REPORT BY ROBERT m'DOWALL, M. D. 

(BESIDING at DAA^ID, PROVINCE OF CHmiQUI.) 

Of all the provinces that constitute the great American isthmus, there is none 
more pleasant to the eye, more valuable for its geographical position, for its ag- 
ricultural capacities, and topographical superiority, than the province of Ohiriqui, 
one of the first points of the American continent touched at by Colon, and yet 
at this present day scarcely known. It has one of the finest harbors in the 
world, (a matter of the highest importance, especially on the Atlantic coast of 
the isthmus,) called the Admiral's bay, on one coast, and secure roadsteads 
on the tranquil Pacific. It lies between 7° and 9° north • latitude, and 81° 5' 
west longitude, limited on the east by the province of Veraguas, north by the 
Atlantic, south by the Pacific, and west by Costa Rica. The Cordilleras divide 
it in two unequal parts, north and south. The northern, about one-third of the 
entire width, is the region of the Cordilleras from the foot of the latter to the 
border of the Pacific consists almost entirely of extensive plains, formed by a 
gradual descent of the land from the mountains, until lost in the level of the 
South sea. Population is all that is required to make the desert smile like the 
rose. Look at those immense plains, bounded north by the majestic Andes, far 
off in the distance, below the twinkling polar star on the one hand, and the 
great southern sea, stretching away towards the coast of " Rich Cathay," on the 
other ; covered only by grazing cattle, with little or no cultivation, though from 
the oak region of the Cordilleras, down to the mangroves on the seaside, the 
industrious farmer could select just exactly the soil and temperature he requires. 
To one who has seen the old world with its overburdened population, a pop- 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



77 



Illation of industrious, moral families, who ask no other favor from God and 
their fellow men than permission to "earn their bread by the sweat of their 
brow," he would feel, I say, that it is a pity so much fine land, and so accessi- 
ble, should be barren, for want of hands to accept the bounty so freely offered. 
How many cold, shivering human beings could become happy here, where only 
wander undomesticated cattle that produce neither milk nor cheese ! Here it 
would puzzle a well man to die of hunger. The cow and the plantain tree feed 
the poor native, almost without any care on his part, and if his thatched hut 
does not leak, he merrily bids "dull care begone." 

The population of this province is about 20,000. David is the principal 
town. Dolega, Alange, Gualaca, Los Remedios, Tole, and one or two small 
villages are not of such importance ; the first, Dolega, about a league from 
David, nearer the Cordilleras, is remarkable for the longevity of its inhabitants, 
many of whom have lived more than a century. The life and customs of the 
original inhabitants is simple and pastoral, whose uniform tenor is only broken 
occasionally by the processions and feast days of the church, their religion be- 
ing purely Roman Catholic. 

There are five races of Indians that inhabit the mountainous regions border- 
ing upon the Atlantic, from Bocas del Toro to Cape Gracias a Dios; these dif- 
ferent tribes are known by the names of Caribes, Mosquitos, Blancos, Valientes, 
and Guaimies ; these last are most known, as they are in the habit of visiting 
the towns of the province to exchange fishing nets, bags, resins, sarsaparilla, 
&c., for common calico, drills, &c., to make clothing for their families. On the 
discovery of America the Indians had gold in abundance, but now such is the 
horror that the traditions of their fathers have inspired against this metal, so 
fatal and destructive to their race, that no consideration will tempt them to touch, 
or give the least information to a white man about their ancient mines. These 
Indians invariably inhabit what are called the "tierras baldias," or government 
lands. They seldom or never make their towns in the plains. 

The principal products of the province are Indian corn, rice, and dried beef, 
the greater part of which is sent to Panama. The mode of preparing the land 
is by burning, similar to that used on the coast of Africa — a mode not only de- 
fective in itself, but ruinous to the best timber of the country. Cocoa and coffee 
produce very abundantly, and the quality of the sugar, made without the least 
knowledge of refining, speaks greatly in favor of the soil and the sugar-cane ; 
cotton also, of good staple and quality ; the caoutchouc tree abounds on the 
coasts of both oceans ; sarsaparilla, croton and castor oil, balsams of copaiba 
and peru, with many other valuable medicinal plants abound in the forests ; 
palm oil, with the aid of a press, could be exported in considerable abundance. 
The mountains besides afford very rare and curious plants of the orchidean 
family, including the fragrant vanilla and bignonia; all of which could be easily 
shipped to order, to supply the increasing wants of intellectual luxury. 

A few analytical experiments on a small scale have shown the mineralogical 
constitution of the country to be no less interesting. Coal of a good quality is 
found on one of the islands, "Muerto," near the port on this side. We have 
evidences of the existence, in more or less abundance, of platina, gold, nickle, 
tin, vanadium, barium, and other rare metals, one of which seems to be new, 
differing from all the known habitudes of other metals; it seems, however, to 
have been known to the ancient Indians, as we find in their graves alloys of 
this metal, with copper, in the form of bats, frogs, &c., quite unoxidated; it 
resists acids for some length of time, has almost the color and specific gravity 
of gold itself. For domestic and other utensils it would be far more eligible 
than all the hitherto compositions in imitation of silver ; united Avith lead it 
makes an excellent drawing pencil. 

What is most essential, then, to make available all these untroubled riches 1 
First, a road that shall open up intercourse between these fine plains and the 



78 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



Atlantic ; secondly, inhabitants to make use of the vast acres of unoccupied 
lauds. For these great benefits the people of this generation look to your 
philanthropy, energy, and enterprising genius. All are anxiously awaiting the 
result of the road privilege now in your possession. 

R. McDOWALL, M. D. 

David, April 15, 1852. 

Mr. Coffin, an American who went to Chiriqui in search of the gold ornaments 
found in the Indian graves, thus describes, in a letter, the province of Ohiric[ui : 

"We sailed from New York on the 25th of August last, destined for the 
Chiriqui lagoon. On the 18th of September we made the Zappadilla Keys, 
off the Boca del Tigre channel. There was a strong current and land breeze 
setting out, and as our captain was not acquainted with the coast, we did not 
enter until the next morning. In going through the channel we found 27 
fathoms as the regular depth, decreasing inside the lagoon to about 14 fathoms, 
and finally anchored, at about 5 p. m., close to the shore in eight fathoms water. 
Although the rainy season had fully set in, and our view was somewhat obscured 
by the continued showers, yet we were astonished and delighted at the grandeur 
and magnificence of this unequalled harbor. The shores were high and bold, 
covered with the stateliest trees, in many places down to the waters' edge. The 
islands and headlands shutting out the view of the ocean, and making the waters 
around us as smooth as a mill-pond, notwithstanding they were some thirty 
miles in length, by more than thirteen in breadth. 

" The few inhabitants on the mainland supposed our schooner to be one of 
Walker's vessels, and immediately fled inland, carrying their cattle with them. 
Owing to this, we found it difficult to procure a guide. The next morning we 
secured the service of an Indian, who was partially acquainted with the route 
across, as it had formerly existed. He had never been over, but undertook, 
however, to show us the new horse road, opened by the Chiriqui Improvement 
Company. It was some three miles from our anchorage, and upon entering it 
found that we could readily walk forward at the rate of three or four miles per 
hour. Many diverging paths had been cut to ascertain the best grades, and 
fearful of being misled by these, we returned to the old road, which had long 
since been abandoned by all but the Indians — they cling to it from a supersti- 
tious belief, which will be noticed hereafter. This old route was one of exceed- 
ing difficulty, and we regretted that we had not gone first to Bocas del Toro, 
and secured a guide from the agent of the Chiriqui Company, who could have 
taken us by the new road. After crossing the Guarume river sixteen times in 
two days, we finally lost the trail, and had to pursue the river bed as our only 
directhig course. Prospecting this for gold while we were advancing, we, in 
four days, reached the mountains; the passes here were steep and rugged, 
causing much toil ; but for this Ave were more than recompensed by the magnifi- 
cent view that burst upon us as we emerged through them. It is impossible to 
fully or adequately describe the beauty of the sloping or gradually descending 
prairies which stretched off southward for forty miles towards the Pacific ocean. 
These lands, richer and more fertile than any I have ever seen, were covered 
with wild cattle, and dotted all over with wild sugar-cane, coffee, cocoa, plan- 
tains, oranges, bananas, guavas, mangoes, &c., growmg in richer and increasing 
profusion as we descended further down the slopes. Higher up towards the 
mountains, through their ravines on all sides, were growing enormous trees of 
mahogany, cedar, basswood, sandalwood, ebony, lignum-vitse, pehue, oaks, palm, 
caoutchouc or Indian-rubber, which latter, upon being punctured, yielded a con- 
tinuous flow of the milk, which quickly hardened and became dark and solid 
after a short exposure to the air and sun. Besides these, there is a peculiar tree 
of great durability, lasting twenty years or more under water or under earth, and 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



79 



wliicli tlie TTorm does not toncli; it is, I tliink, called the Grenadilla; it is tlie 
rosewood of commerce, and is used bj the residents for the underpinning of 
their houses. It will become of great value to ship-builders, for the framing of 
vessels. 

We rested ourselves at Caldera, which is said to be the most healthful place 
in the world, no epidemic diseases ever having been known there. The atmos- 
phere ^ as delightfully exhilarating, whilst the abundant supply of nature, in 
every form, was most enticing. Fat cattle may there be purchased at three 
dollars, and horses and mules at from ten to fifteen dollars each. Grains and 
fruits can be had for the gathering. There is, indeed, a perpetual harvest of all 
that man requires upon these vast plains. 

Early the next day we took horses for Dolego and David, and arrived at the 
latter place at 9 a. m. Here we found a few Americans. Most of the "huaca" 
hunters had left because of the rainy season. We were informed that many of 
them would return, both for the purpose of prospecting for gold and for perma- 
nent settlement in the country. Few, indeed, can go there without having the 
desire to remain, or resolving to return if circumstances force them aAvay. 

Amongst those in David was a late engineer and agent of the Panama Rail- 
road Company. Upon meeting me he exclaimed, "My God! what a country 
we are in! What a place for railroads. Here you can start from the mountains 
to the Pacific, without fuel, using only the brakes down the long inclines, which 
are so gentle that a good engine can do nearly full duty in ascending them ! 
And then so easy to make the road ; you have but to lay down the cross-ties, 
put on the iron, and you are ready for work ! And what a climate ! I have 
never had such health. I could not believe, if I had not experienced it, that 
there could be such a difference in such a short distance from Aspinwall. I 
sleep under a blanket every night, and you cannot realize how invigorating it 
is after my residence in Aspinwall and Panama. I feel that I am becoming a 
new man in this district of Chiriqui." This gentleman was one of the first 
pioneers upon the Panama road ; cut down, indeed, the first tree that was felled 
in that important work, and his great regret now is that this route was then 
completely unknown. Had it been, doubtless it would at this day be, what> it 
necessarily will ere long become, the great highway to California, as well as to 
Australia and the East Indies. 

I have been in nearly every region of the globe, and until I visited this, be- 
lieved that California surpassed them all. Chiriqui, from ocean to ocean, how- 
ever, equals that in every respect, and surpasses it in many of the true essentials 
for prosperity and happiness. 

With their usual spirit of monopoly, the Pacific Mail Company had sent Mr. 
Pierson down to prospect for their especial benefit, intending to secure to them- 
selves all the passenger trade, and as much of other matters as might be possi- 
ble. I found Mr. Pierson delighted with the country; he considers that it is to 
become the centre of new gold production, as well as of a commerce between 
Asia and Europe, which will change the existing relations of trade. Mr. Pierson 
wished us to go to Boco Vita, to assist, so soon as the dry season, should com- 
mence, in opening the huacas ; but, as our provisions and clothing had been left 
at the Chiriqui lagoon, we determined to return there by the new road which 
had been opened for the Chiriqni company, even if we should have to do so 
without a guide. 

Our difiiculty in procuring one was great. This arose fr'om the fact that it 
had been opened through a country which the ancient and still cherished super- 
stitions of the Indians taught them was specially guarded by their deities, and 
was supposed by them to be the region in which dwelt the spirits of their an- 
cestors, and to which had been carried their treasures. They believe that the 
evil spirits had been driven out of this sacred ground, and, becoming devils, 
they had taken the forms of wild hogs, tigers, serpents, mountain mouchas, &c., 



80 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



and that any improper approaches were fatal to the party. Not deterred by 
these representations, we made our arrangements to set out. Finding that we 
were determined to go, our old guides agreed to accompany us, provided we 
would allow them time to prepare, and allow them always after night fall to 
sleep in our midst, and give them double pay. After two days' detention for 
their preparation, we started at noon from Dolego, travelling for fifteen miles 
over a magnificent prairie, gradually ascending at the rate of about one foot in 
the hundred. At the ranche were we stopped, we found sugar cane, Indian 
corn, plantains, bananas, &c., growing in the greatest abundance. On reaching 
the foot of the Boquete, we commenced opening the huacas, but with poor suc- 
cess ; it was raining too much to continue this work, as they filled with water 
as fast as we dug into them. Next day we entered the mountain passes, expect- 
ing a toilsome and difficult ascent, but were agreeably disappointed, as it was so 
gradual by the Chiriqui road, which we were on, that we actually crossed the 
ridge or backbone of the Cordilleras, and were on the descending slope, with 
waters flowing to the Atlantic, before we were aware that we had reached the 
summit. The distance from the summit is only about twenty miles, with grades 
which nowhere exceed eighty feet to the mile, and these by careful engineer- 
ing can be much reduced. We came slowly down, camping frequently for the 
purpose of prospecting. 

It is impossible for me to describe the beauty of the scenery on the line of 
this road from David to Ohiriqui lagoon. It was like the most highly im- 
proved English parks, but exceeded any of them in the stately grandeur of the 
trees, and the wild but beautiful luxuriance of vegetable production everywhere 
around us — superb mahogany trees of every variety, live-oaks, bread fruit, log- 
wood. The grape tree, producing a fruit about the size of a pigeon's egg, hav- 
ing a pith similar to that of the olive, and of the most delightful taste, refresh- 
ing and invigorating, and said to possess great medicinal quality in dispelling 
fevers. There were also several kinds of trees producing nuts from which the 
natives extract oils of rich and peculiar qualities, which they use upon the hair 
and for softening and beautifying the skin. We found, also, the potato grow- 
ing wild, quite as large and good as the cultivated Irish potato of this country. 
There were many productions, the names of which we could not learn, and an 
endless variety of trees, some of enormous size and height, the timber of which 
appeared most valuable. There were also great varieties of fruits on trees, 
bushes, and shrubs, many of exceeding delicacy to the taste and apparently 
most nutritious. 

There is also a silk grass of great length of fibre, very strong, and far supe- 
rior to the manilla. It must entirely supersede this latter article for the manu- 
facture of rope. A sample of this, with some other articles, I send you here- 
with. Cotton grows wild, and the tree reaches the size of our large apple trees, 
with bolls of such a size that a handful may be taken from each. It appears to 
fully equal the Sea Island quality of South Carolina, but is shorter in fibre. In 
some parts of the lagoon the oranges, lemons, and limes grow in profusion ; 
they were the largest and finest kind I have ever seen. 

Grame is most abundant. Amongst the varieties are deer, mountain moucha 
or wild cow, warrah or wild hog; thousands of each of these are roaming 
through the mountain passes and feeding on the rich slopes. There are wild 
turkeys, pheasants, quails, partridges, and birds of every imaginable plumage ; 
the birds of paradise are here much larger than those of India. Monkeys of 
every size and great variety of color followed us from tree to tree, chattering 
and pointing at our dog. The natives eat the red monkey, considering him a 
great delicacy, but when killed and the hair taken off, they had so much the 
look of a human, that we could not be tempted to taste. Some of these mon- 
keys are very docile, and become great favorites with the natives. 

The Chiriqui road runs through a country unequalled in beauty and richness. 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONI/SATION 



81 



The land will produce an abundance with but slight tillage ; and once the road 
is carried to a high state of improvement, sugar and tobacco as fine, if not finer, 
than those of Cuba will become articles of large export ; while coffee, cocoa, 
or the chocolate nut, will be of equal importance. 

On the plains the road is already in condition for carriage travel ; through the 
mountains it is only fit for horse transport ; but if vigorously worked it can, in 
from sixty to ninety days, be rendered fit for wagons or carriages and the trans- 
portation of mails and passengers ; and the entire distance from ocean to ocean 
may be accomplished in a single day. The land being high, without marshes, 
and with but few streams to cross, and these small, a railroad may be constructed 
with facility and rapidity ; and as this road has the only harbors of the isthmus 
at its termini, it must necessarily become one of vast importance to the civilized 
world. The commerce between Great Britain and Australia, the Indies, and 
China, as also to her North Pacific possessions, must take the route across the 
Atlantic, and by the isthmus to the Pacific. In such a trade vessels of large 
tonnage must be employed to make their voyages profitable. Such vessels 
can nowhere find a harbor on the isthmus, except at the Chiriqui lagoon, and at 
the terminal point of the road on the Pacific. This route must, therefore, be- 
come the European highway to Asia. The Panama route may answer the pur- 
pose of our commerce until we also use larger vessels ; but ultimately the Chi- 
riqai route must, from its natural advantages and its coal beds, become the lead- 
ing commercial route. 

At the period of our first arrival in the lagoon we had no time to examine 
its shores or islands. On our return we coasted there on our way to Bocas del 
Toro. At several points on the mainland and island Ave saw the coal veins 
which belong to the Chiriqui company cropping out and glistening in the sun. 
At Pope's island and at Splithill a vessel could lay directly under the edges of 
these veins, in deep water, and have the coal shovelled from the mines down her 
hatches. 

The islands are equally fertile with the mainland. On Provision island there 
are thousands of cocoa-nut trees, lemons, oranges, plantains, bananas, and sweet 
potatoes growing wild, and rotting for want of use. The same on Cocoa-nut 
keys, Columbus island, and nearly all the other islands in the lagoon. All 
the islands, and especially Pope's island, are to a great extent covered with large 
trees, fit for ship timber and for the finest works ; amongst them we found live- 
oak, Cfedar, locust, zappadella, granadilla, grape fruit, rosewood, satinwood, 
zebrawood, and other varieties, the names of Avhich we did not know. Some 
of the trees grow to the height of 120 feet before a limb shoots out. There is 
also the betel-nut tree, the most beautiful tree that is known ; it is the same as 
the Java betel, the nut of which is used for chewing by the natives. 

The shores of the lagoon are varied, some sandy beach, some bluff coral, 
some high rock, and at intervals the land stretches out with heavy timber, grow- 
ing down to the water's edge. There are no marshes, and although we were 
exposed constantly in the rainy season for more than two months we enjoyed 
entire health, and this justifies us in saying that it is the most healthy, if not 
the only healthy, locality on the entire isthmus. The sea breeze sets in at about 
11a. m., gentle and exhilarating, and continues most of the day, dying out at 6 
in the evening, when the land breeze commences, and blows gently throughout 
the entire night ; each breeze is sufficient to enable vessels to enter or leave the 
lagoon. The main entrance is the Tigre channel ; it is 160 miles from Grey- 
town and 120 miles from Aspinwall, or nearly equi-distant between them. The 
town of Boca del Toro, on Columbus island, is pleasantly located on a hand- 
some little bay. It contains about two hundred inhabitants. The lagoon 
abounds in fish. The hawksbill and green turtle are abundant. 

There are never-failing springs of fresh water on all the islands, and on the 



H. Rep. Com. 148 6 



82 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



shores of the lagoon. The water of the creeks and rivers is also excellent, 
and is preferred hj the natives because it is warmer than those of the springs. 

Nature has spread her bounties plentifully around this favored region, and all 
that seems to be wanted is the full completion of the Ohiriqui road into a rail- 
road to till the shores and the interior with a thriving and active people, and to 
build up commercial cities in the harbor, which will probably rival some of the 
most prosperous of our own country. 

I have given you a brief and disinterested report upon the country and the 
condition of the road thus far opened by the Chiriqui company. I might go 
into great detail, but were I to do so, and describe accurately the face of the 
country and all its rich and varied productions, I might be charged with exag- 
geration, or even with dealing in the marvellous. It is impossible to realize its 
beauties and advantages except by actual observation. 

In conclusion, I may add that the possessions of your company are of im- 
mense value, and their improvement ought to be pressed forward rapidly, to 
secure advantages which are now opening to this line of transit. 

I shall return to Ohiriqui in January, and may settle permanently there. If 
I can in any way be of service in forwarding you information, it will afford me 
pleasure to do so. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

CHARLES E. B. COFFIN. 

The late envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of New Granada, 
in an official paper certifying to the titles of the Chiriqui Improvement Company, 

thus speaks of the province of Chiriqui : 

********** 

In addition to the foregoing certificate, I avail myself, with great pleasure, of 
this opportunity to give testimony, that from information, official and private, 
worthy of all belief, or from my own information, I am of opinion that there are 
few countries in the world that possess so many elements of prosperity and 
wealth as that part of the State of Panama which forms the province of Cliiriqui. 
In proof of this, it is sufficient to mention its interoceanic position, the variety 
and comparative softness of its climate, which is most salubrious, especially in 
the mountainous parts, which enjoy a very fresh and bracing temperature, and 
in the southern part is almost populated, level, covered with grass and flowers, 
and abounding in flocks and herds ; whilst the northern part only awaits the 
hand of civilized man to become no less healthful and desirable, and perhaps 
still better populated. 

The mines of gold, from which Christopher Columbus carried with him spe- 
cimens to Spain, yet remain to testify the existence of that precious metal in the 
gorges and ravines of the mountains ; the mines of copper, of iron, of coal, and 
the various mineral springs which exist between the town of David and Bocas 
del Toro ; the gum elastic, the pearls and pearl oysters, and the tortoise, furnishing 
the tortoise shell, abound on those coasts, in which there is already considerable 
commerce; the richest and most valuable dye-woods, timber for building, and 
especially ship timber, and resinous and medicinal woods, besides all these re- 
sources to make living easy and cheap. The most abundant game invite the 
chase, and all the fruits and products of the intertropical zone, from the papa, 
Indian corn, and garden products, to that of cocoa, the plantain, the arrowroot, 
the cacao, the coffee, the cotton, the sugar-cane, besides many other things to 
which other countries now owe their wealth and prosperity ; the facility of com- 
munication, especially on the Pacific side, whilst Panama and Punta Arenas 
furnish convenient and secure markets for the stock and all the articles of food 
from Chiriqui, there being between the town of David and Panama a level road, 
with abundance of water, and well populated — a people simple in their manners 



EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION. 



83 



and habits, and principally engaged in agTicultural industry and pastoral hus- 
bandry, and therefore peaceful and moral; and, finally, the magnificent entrance 
to this beautiful region, which Providence has arranged and the Cxranadian gov- 
ernment has opened to all nations, is through Chiricjui lagoon and Admiral bay, 
an immense double bay, with fertile shores, one hundred and twelve miles in 
circumference, into which no less than twelve rivers empty themselves. Numer- 
ous harbors, among which there are two of the most commodious and secure in 
the Avorld. Near to these are the coal mines, whose titles I have already certi- 
fied, and they alone in the present epoch would be sufiicient to render pros- 
perous, as well as an object of desire, any country which may possess them. 

A country which, in only that part of it which is known, can show such na- 
tural advantages and resources, cannot do less than to reward most prodigally 
the peaceful emigrant who may employ in it his capital, his intelligence, and 
his activity ; and it is not necessary to be a prophet to predict with certainty 
that this region will be, at no distant day, one of the richest marts in the world. 

I must add that all that I have here written of Ohiriqui is confirmed by the 
labors of the scientific commission, which, by order of the Gfranadian govern- 
ment, are now concluding, under the direction of General Cordazzi, a choro- 
graphical and topographical description of the confederation. 

I cannot omit speaking of one circumstance more, which occurs to me, in favor 
of Ohiriqui, and that is its contiguity to a neighboring people, laborious, peace- 
ful, and well accredited as are those of Costa Rica, which owes to its own efforts, 
since its independence, all its prosperity. 

These two countries are evidently destined by nature to mutually assist and 
enrich each other. 

P. A. HERRAN. [seal.] 

Washington, Ajiril 8, 1859. 



LETTER 



ON THE RELATION 0?- 



THE ¥HITE AID AFRICA! RACES 



IN 



THE UNITED STATES, 



SHOWING THE NECESSITY OF THE 



COLONIZATION OF THE LATTEE. 



ADDRESSED TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE U. S. 



WASHINGTON: 
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

1862. 



His Excellency Abraham Lincoln. 



Sir: The conviction of this nation being wide-spread, and 
becoming more general each day, that the peace and pros- 
perity of the country and the permanency of our republican 
civilization, require a separation of the colored or negro 
race from us, suggests that the statesmen whose duty it is, 
from time to time, to reflect in their legislative movements 
such public sentiment as is well grounded and correct, 
should now assume and fix firmly in the national policy on 
this subject such fundamental principles of action as w^ill 
prove lights and guides to the men who in after ages shall 
be obliged to meet and battle with difficulties like those you 
have encountered; for the experience of the past shows that 
the future is fraught with danger to the peace of this 
country. The calamity that now rests upon us had long 
beeii foreseen and deprecated by the wise and reflecting 
men of the past generation, and untiring efforts have been 
made to avoid them by many of the men of this. But the 
mass of the nation would not heed the words of warning; 
they abandoned themselves to the lead of our enemies, 
foreign and domestic ; hence this storm of blighting war. 
Yet, terrible as is this civil war between men of kindred 
race for the dominion of the servant, future history will 
show that it has been moderate and altogether tolerable 
when contrasted with a struggle between the black and the 
white race, which, within the next one or two hundred j-ears 
must sweep over this nation, unless the wise and prudent 
statesmen of this generation avert it. In that struggle the 
issue will be the existence of the weaker race, and we must 
not flatter ourselves that the most numerous, in all localities, 
will be the white race. 

Permit us, then, to ask your aid and influence to induce 
the people of this Republic, through their National and 
State governments, to make a speedy, energetic, and uni- 
form move through all their courts of legislation, all their 
means of influence and agencies of political power, to pro- 
duce the separation of those races, the removal of the 
colored race to a proper locality, and establishment in 
independence there. Surely this exercise of influence is a 
legitimate prerogative of the Chief Magistrate, the guardian 
of national peace, who, being convinced of impending danger 
to the country, has the undoubted right to notify the nation 



4 



of its approach, and recommend the remedy. Being grateful 
for the positions you have assumed, and the recommenda- 
tions you have made, we herein respectfully submit a few 
reflections intended to sustain (though feeble may be the 
effort) the policy proposed, and asking that, so long as God 
grants you place and power at the head of this great nation, 
you will continue to this subject the care its magnitude 
merits and our national dangers demand. 

The rebellion that is now shaking the foundation of the 
nation, is the struggle of Imperialism to establish itself in a 
republican land. Imperialism, the government of the many 
by the few, the dominion of unchecked, despotic will, is one 
of the curses resulting from man's apostacy. For ages it 
has been regarded as a necessary evil amongst men — a thing 
of Divine appointment — and the fortunate incumbents of 
this power, for long centuries, have sheltered themselves- 
behind this opinion, and strengthened themselves in this 
conviction. Nor are they altogether without authority in 
this ; for, as despotic rule is a curse, we must admit that 
instruments for its infliction have been permitted. 

BepuUicanism, on the other hand, is a deliverance from 
this curse of despotic rule — a condition in which all men ar& 
equal before the law — and the law is supreme — meteing out 
equal protection and equal justice. Such was the plan of 
our republicanism as projected by the fathers of the nation; 
such has been the practice of most of the communities 
embraced within the broad field of the Republic; but in 
other sections of the land a different economy prevailed and. 
continues to prevail; an imperialism of a circumscribed 
character has been practised, which necessarily saps the 
foundation of republicanism and educates the people to 
imperial rule. This has been the source of our danger, and 
in this manifest weakness the imperialists of Europe have 
found the greatest temptation to tamper with our prosperity 
and integrity. 

Our danger in the future arises from the fact that we have 
4,500,000 persons, who, whilst amongst us, cannot be of us — 
persons of a different race, forming necessarily a distinct 
interest; the germ of a distinct political power, not now 
fully disclosed, but to be disclosed in future ages; and from 
the fact that the government applied to those people is not 
republican, but anti-republican, having many of the imperial 
marks about it, the toleration of which has educated ' many 



5 



of our people to look with favor on a radical change of our 
republican institutions. 

The social and civil evils resulting from the presence of 
the negro race are numerous, and their magnitude can be 
better discovered by the stranger than the victims of the 
calamity. 

Amongst them we rank first and most destructive to the 
purity and simplicity of society — which strikes deeper at 
the root of good order, and mines most effectually the 
foundations of that citadel of national stability, the family — 
the license of the races, which is giving to this continent a 
nation of bastards. No apology can be given for this; none 
Avill be received by the Great Ruler; he will punish for 
this with fearful severity. It should not be concealed from 
the authorities of the land, and the parties interested should 
not be permitted to disguise the criminal fact, that the most 
immoral maxims are retained amongst this people, and made 
the justification of crime in this regard — all predicated on 
the hope of the colored race to rise by the illicit absorption 
of their blood into the mass of this nation. Time and again 
has this hope been expressed in our hearing, and as often 
denounced as the source and cause of crime. That political 
economist must be blind indeed; that statesman must be a 
shallow thinker, who cannot see a fearful future before this 
country, if the production of this mixed race is not checked 
by removal. So sure as time sweeps on, giving intelligence, 
numbers, strength, and more corrupt European blood to 
this class, so sure the period will come when this mixed 
population will assume the offensive, and possibly the next 
great civil war will be the conflict of this race for dominion 
and existence. It is strange, passing strange, that our 
moralists will not look this part of the matter in the face, 
and shape their precepts accordingly. 

The second social evil, we rank the production of strife in 
the church courts of our land, and the damage to Christian 
faith resulting therefrom. 

And the third is our civil contentions, which are now 
threatening our national existence ; the second precedes the 
third, and must always go hand and hand with it. The war 
of words and opinions always precedes the clash of arms. 
Take a review of the past twenty years : the men of the 
North, actuated no doubt by benevolence, demanded reforms 
in the clear and well known abuses resulting from the pres- 
ence of the negro. The questions were introduced into the 



6 



church courts ; the reforms advocated and agitated, not 
always in correct temper ; the controllers of this undesira- 
ble population took the alarm ; they sought refu2:e in Scrip- 
ture precedents ; northern resolutions and sermons were 
met by southern resolutions and sermons ; each section suc- 
ceeded in manufacturing a public opinion and conscience 
adverse to the other ; indeed, much of the fearful responsi- 
bility of this scene of blood rests on the hierarchies of the 
sections. Yery soon the contest passed from the church 
courts to the legislative halls ; antagonistic laws were en- 
acted, and States, as such, were arrayed against each other j 
finally, the conflict passed from the forum into the field, 
and there we are trying to decide the first great military 
struggle — but we fear not the last, arising from the pres- 
ence of the negro race — demonstrating that this population 
is in the way of the peace of the country, the cause of 
immorality and misrule. 

Thus far we have found that their presence here disturbs 
our social structure. We come now to examine how far our 
civil structure is damaged by this population. 

As a nation we claim to be a republic, and for our insti- 
tutions we claim that they are republican. We mean 
thereby that this nation is anti-despotic, and our institutions 
guarantee equal rights to all our citizens — equal protection 
to all under our jurisdiction. Such is the theory; but what 
is the practice? We hold within our limits four millions 
and a half of negroes, most of them slaves, under a worse 
form of bondage than was that of Russia. In the latter 
case the religion and domestic rights of the servant are 
respected; in the former they are disregarded in the legal 
provision of many slave communities. Here, in our opinion, 
lies the great crime of American slavery; not so much in 
requiring the servant to work without a fixed compensation 
as in disregarding the law of God; in discrediting the 
domestic relations of husband and wife, parent and child — 
which are ordinances of Heaven, that no community may 
disregard without bringing Divine judgments on itself — this 
with forbidding the use of letters to the slave, making God's 
word a sealed book, are crimes of the first magnitude, all 
resulting from the disposition to hold those people here for 
profit and gain. Can such an institution be cherished within 
a republic? We think not. However, with the relation 
of master and slave the inhabitants of the free States have 
agreed not to interfere^ for the Constitution must be observed 



7 



strictly. But there is one clause of this sacred compact 
which requires the Federal government to "guarantee to 
the several States a republican form of government." 
Those few words, in our opinion, form the true constitutional 
instrument or article, which, when rightly rendered and 
applied as a test to State constitutions and institutions, will 
free all the States under the compact from this corrupting 
institution of African slavery. When rightly construed it 
must and will require the gradual removal of such anti- 
republican elements and peoples as cannot be engrafted on 
the national stock; especially when it is found that those 
anti-republican elements and peoples have long been 
regarded by the diplomats in the interest of imperialism as 
the fulcrum on which to rest the lever designed to overturn 
our whole civil structure and rend us into fragments. As 
a nation we are learning wisdom by the things we suffer. 

The history of the great rebellion is not yet complete; 
the unseen influences which have produced it are not fully 
disclosed; but the dim outline begins to take form and place, 
so that the true friends and actual enemies of this Republic 
will soon be discovered, and each receive the place in history 
that infamy or honor may award. When the work is complete, 
when the last act in the great and fearful drama shall have 
been closed, it will be found that our country has been the 
victim of a conspiracy, the magnitude of which is without a 
parallel in the history of nations — though wicked, yet ren- 
dered grand through the combination of potent and jrn'wce??/ 
influences arrayed, and to he arrayed, against us, because of 
the issues in question, and the result of the conflict — issues of 
no local character, but involving the fate of that system of 
government known in contradistinction to imperial rule as 
republicanism. 

It is admitted on all hands that our mixed and servile 
population constitute the root of those issues and quarrels ; 
what shall be done with them is the question of the hour. 
Suppose the relation of master and slave abolished through- 
out the nation, what is the new relation you will give the 
freed men of the slave country? This is the question 
which requires solution. When the relation of master and 
slave ceases to exist — as cease it will in time — what shall be 
the rights and franchises wherewith you will endow and 
vest the 4,000,000 freed men of the South? 

To this, one class of statesmen answer, we will grant 
them equal franchise, social and civil, and thus incorporate 



8 



them into the body of the nation ; we will Africanize, and 
thus remove the difficulties in the way of our republicanism. 
I have yet to learn that any respectable statesman has dared 
to assume this position, or that any large or influential body 
of men have attempted to defend political measures based 
on this system of assimilation. We are free to admit that 
such a system of assimilation or amalgamation is necessary, 
provided you ivish to retain those people liere. under the juris- 
diction of our repuhUcan form of government ; nay, we main- 
tain, that our fundamental laws demand equal rights to all 
our citizens. This is a cardinal principle that cannot be 
ignored ; the name and claim are empty unless we extend 
those rights. To extend them, is to open every social and * 
civil avenue to this African mass: the office, the legislative 
hall, the family ; to pour the blood of near five million Afri- 
cans into the veins of the Republic, and that, too, in the 
face of the most solemn protests of the sections most to be 
affected by this repulsive admixture of blood — the country 
drained by the Mississippi — the border free and slave States 
of the West, who think they deserve better things of their 
brethren of the East than an attempt to engraft the African 
race on their country as a permanent population. It should 
be known to the men of the East that the fear of having 
African blood engrafted on the future population of the great 
valley, is becoming a formidable power at the West; it has 
burst into fragments the pro-slavery party of the West ; it 
has nerved the arms of thousands in this conflict ; it has 
said to the slave despots, ^^you shall not Africanize this 
land^^^ the heritage of our children ; and what it has said 
in tones of thunder, and w^ritten in blood-stained characters 
with pointed steel, it clothes in subdued tones and words of 
warning to the men of the Exeter Hall school, who, far re- 
moved from the scene of danger, see not the degradation of 
this admixture of race. 

Let the friend of English views, the disciple of Exeter 
Hall, approach one of these western men and attempt to 
reason with him on the subject; he may tell him that it is 
not in keeping with the spirit of the age to exclude the 
African race from the rights and privileges of the Eepublic. 
He will answer that his social and civil structure was made 
for white men, not for black men; that he is opposed to 
social equality with the negro, and therefore opposed to the 
civil equality of such people with him, because social 
equality is a condition of society wherein each member, 



9 



however dissimilar his circumstances in life to those of his 
neighbor, may attain by industry or fortune to that very 
social position which his neighbor holds; that this condition 
of social equality is predicated on civil or political equality, 
for there can be no social equality without it, such a sup- 
position is absurd; that the government of his country is 
republican, and as such requires a homogeneous population, 
and that republicanism is applicable to such and such alone — 
a people in which each man is essentially the equal of his 
neighbor; that by a homogeneous population he means not 
this color or that color, but a population that can and will 
amalgamate on legal and honorable terms; that he does not 
choose to regard the negro as his equal, and if disposed to 
regard him as his equal in mind and worth, he does not 
choose to endanger the blood of his posterity by the prox- 
imity of such a population; that there is no command in the 
Word of God that will oblige him to place this race on the 
high road to such an amalgamation with his family; and if 
not with his family, not with that mass of families he calls a 
State. He will say that a family, and that collection of families 
which constitute his State, have the right, beyond all organic 
law, to say who shall or who shall not be received into their 
bosom and made members of their society; that the Ameri- 
can people, in the exercise of this right, have admitted the 
white races, because they could amalgamate such on legal 
and honorable terms, whilst they rejected the black because 
they could not or would not amalgamate on legal or honor- 
able terms. He will point to the recorded opinion of the 
Supreme tribunal of the nation as to citizenship. He will tell 
you that he is a sovereign on the soil he treads, and as such 
has as good a right to protect the purity of his blood in 
future ages as has the sovereign of England, and to enact laws 
thereto. Nothing but the authority of the Divine law will 
change his purpose to hedge himself in and erect legal pro- 
tections against this possible admixture of blood, which he 
sees endangers the peace of society more than the inter- 
marriage of England's royal heir with plebeian line. 

The student of Exeter Hall may then, with self compla- 
cency, point to the corruption of blood where slavery is 
cherished. And what has he accomplished by that? He 
rouses the pride of his antagonist, causing him to hate 
slavery all the more, and we much mistake his character if 
he does not answer with the emphasis of indignation. 
Where men are truly moral and religious, the white and 



10 



black races do not mix, so that the influence of religion 
will never effect fusion, or destroy the right of choice in 
the parties. 411 attempts to destroy this right of choice for 
himself or his family he will regard as an aggression, and 
repel with feeling, which if provoked by constant irritation 
and factious opposition to his local interests, can summon 
armed aid. Hence I have said we are destined to see other 
wars in this conflict of races, unless wisdom becomes our 
guide. 

I trust my fears in this regard are not well grounded; but 
let the stranger go amongst the people of the West and 
South, as I have done, and propose any other plan of 
meliorating the unfortunate condition of the free man of 
color than that of removal to an independent home, and 
the mass of the people will regard him with more than 
jealously. What is it gives the hate and ranchor, the 
venom and the ire to this wicked rebellion amongst the 
poorer classes of the South ? Is it love for the negro ? No, 
but it is the hatred of those who would engraft, as they 
say, negro blood on the population of their country. All 
such they call by what to them is the sum of all evil, 
abolitionists — showing that they confound the anti-slavery 
men of all schools, who are not out-spoken colonizationists, 
with that small class of northern theorists who defend 
amalgamation. What is it that causes the free masses of 
the West to mutter suppressed displeasure and threats, such 
as have been often heard, against their brethren of the 
New England States, when the negro question is discussed ? 
It is this ill-defined fear that New England aims at engraft- 
ing negro blood on the masses of the Mississippi valley, by 
embarrassing the colonization and separation movement, as 
has been their habit. We must, therefore, rank thi? now 
latent Eastern and Western feeling of sectional hate, which 
only slumbers because of a traverse antagonism, as an 
additional evil because of the presence of those people. 

We must regard the extension of equal social and civil 
rights to this class of persons as distateful to the mass of 
the nation ; the majority will never submit to it ; any at- 
tempt to enforce it will 4ead to restlessness and trouble in 
the West ; nor will citizens made in the East for western 
or southern use, answer a wise and peaceful purpose. Thus 
ends the remedy of the first class of statesmen ; it falls short 
of the evil it proposes to remove — it does not bring national 
quiet. 



11 



A second class come in and propose a restricted franchise 
for the freed men of the country: Let them remain labor- 
ers and pay them for their labor; they will make yon a 
valuable peasantry, say our English friends of the court end 
of London ; you can employ them through all coming time; 
it is not necessary nor desirable to endow them with the 
rights of republicanism; see our fine peasantry ; in England 
and Ireland, but few, if any of them, vote ; but few, if any 
of them, hold real estate ; it is not necessary that they 
shoulH. Why not construct such a peasantry out of your 
freed men ? 

Our English friends, and those on this side who follow 
their views, ' ' will never choose to comprehend the nature 
of our republican society and institutions,'' which can no 
more tolerate or accommodate a disfranchised peasant class, 
than it can accommodate a slave class ; they forget, or affect 
to forget, that slaves and peasants deprived of the right of 
citizenship, and suffering social degradation, are incompati- 
ble with the genius of our republicanism. A disfranchised 
peasant class is essential to an aristocracy, or a monarchy ; 
it is one of the appendages of imperialism ; there could be 
no lords, or nobles, unless there were ignoble serfs and 
peasants ; these must exist as a substrata on which to rear 
the higher orders and classes of society in a monarchy — 
sweep them away, and imperialism, in all its forms, falls to 
'the ground ; advocate their establishment, and so far you 
advocate the overthrow of republicanism and the establish- 
ment of imperialism. 

One of the admitted necessities of a country covered by^ 
a classified or heterogeneous population, is a strong central 
government, with restricted franchise; privileged ruling 
families; strong military arm; the governing power going 
down from the head or throne, not as with us, up from the 
people. This is the actual condition of the States now in 
rebellion — the condition to which they have been drifting 
for years. Their manifest policy is to centralize the govern- 
ing power in the hands of the few. Remove that few by 
special chartered rights above the laboring masses, and 
then govern by a strong military pressure, if necessary; this, 
in our opinion, is the overthrow of republicanism and the 
establishment of imperialism. 

It is time it was known to the American people that this 
ruin of republicanism and establishment of imperialism is 
the condition of society which many of the rulers of the 



12 



'Old World wish to superinduce on this continent, but 
especially on this nation, for therein the courts of Europe 
see the sure and lasting guarantee of the perpetuity of their 
own imperial rule. To assure monarchy in Europe and 
extend its dominion down to the indefinite future, all that 
is necessary is to revolutionize our republican society and 
engraft privileged classes on us, which will surely end in a 
throne; for the heads of privileged families will quarrel 
amongst themselves, unless regulated by a supreme chief 
or president, who always end by assuming the crown/ 

Well do the nobility of England know that the negro race 
constitute the vulnerable point in our republicanism; some 
of them understand the embarrassments of our situation as 
well as we do ourselves. They know that we cannot make 
republican citizens out of our negro population. Having 
thus shadowed the two theories of the English school in 
what we have already said, let us note their management of 

the American question, '' to our prejudice and well-nigh 
our ruin. 

The management of this most dangerous question in 
American policy, though unworthy a Christian State, does 
honor to the political skill of the oligarchy, the finger of 
whose diplomacy has intermeddled with the business, the 
interests, and fate of every nation known, and which this 
day permits no rival people or power to rise without earnest 
efforts to retard, restrict, or to destroy. 

The early statesmen of this nation saw more distinctly 
than their successors the dangers arising from two incom- 
patible races in the same country, and foresaw the fearful 
conflicts that must result from their contact. Actuated alike 
by policy and humanity, they resolved to enter on the 
gradual emancipation of the slave and the separation of the 
races. So soon as the friends of human liberty in this 
country had defined this plan of emancipation, connected 
with the removal or colonization of the freed men beyond 
the limits of our Republic, just so soon did the men of Eng- 
land object, and present other plans to our American philan- 
thropists of a widely different character, not suited to the 
structure of republican institutions. The English plans 
and theories were enforced by the exercise of all the moral 
and personal influence that the upper classes of that empire 
could bring to bear on the subject. The effect was to divide 
our good me^i amongst themselves; divide their plans, divide 
their influence. We were thus divided, whilst the people 



13 



of England were a unit. They had but one cardinal plan 
for us, and that was to fasten this people permanently on 
the soil of our country. "Emancipation on the soil" was 
their ivatcli cry, and the creation of a colored peasantry out 
of the freed men. To enforce this plan upon us two agencies 
were used, the Puritan and the Cavalier: the first addressed 
himself to the North, the last to the South. The thunders 
of Exeter Hall were directed upon us, and made echo and 
re-echo over hill and dale of our wide-spread land. The 
English plans Avere enforced by the pulpit, and the press- 
printed matter, and the agencies of lecturers, together with 
appeals to the ecclesiastical bodies of our land, and by what 
was more remarkable, the open mission of a member of the 
British parliament, who came to aid in the work of division 
and distraction, but especially for the prostration of all 
schemes of relief. 

Those English agencies found a ready people amongst 
the polished thinkers, the benevolent and philosophic 
minds of cold and calm New England, who sometimes see 
a man of color, just enough of this to call up the Avell 
springs of benevolence, and exercise the feelings peculiar 
to the well ordered brotherhood of man. Here an English 
party and an English interest found a lodgement. Parker, 
Philips, and others, uttered the watch cry of opposition to 
the separation of the races ; they talked of abstract rights 
and privileges peculiar to the denizens of the great domains; 
they loved the negro so much and well, they would plant 
the dusky mass permanently amongst the people of the 
East! Oh, no! But amongst the people of the South- 
west ; notwithstanding the most earnest and emphatic pro- 
tests of the States in that locality. \ 

Thus the plot thickened and the controversy grew warm. 
New England went with the men of Eexter Hall, whilst the 
central communities, most endangered by an admixture of 
blood, advocate the removal of the negro on such terms as 
would be agreeable to all. This interest found its most 
able advocates in the Middle States and the Mississippi 
valley. Amongst the chief advocates of this policy, stood 
that true representative of American statesmen, Henry 
Clay; but he and his friends had a third powerful party, or 
interest to resist. The fragments of the old tory party,, 
entrenched in South Carolina, under the lead of John C. 
Calhoun, and those who sympathized with him in other 
Southern States ; the advocates of a colored peasantry 



14 

under bonds of perpetual servitude; the men of the G-alf 
school took advantage of the division in the ranks of the 
emancipationists, and whilst they were rendered impotent 
by their differences as to plans, those advocates of perpet- 
ual slavery moulded the southern mind to suit themselves, 
and proclaimed the Divinity of slavery ; and under the 
inspiration of European imperialism, established the dogma, 
that the few have a right to rule, and that it is the duty of 
the toiling millions to obey. 

By both these extreme interests the horrors of expatriation 
were proclaimed and denounced. It will be remembered 
that when Mr. Clay, at the request of some of his friends, 
wrote a letter to Judge Robinson, showing the necessity of 
a separation of the races as a measure of national policy, 
the Exeter Hall men were sadly outraged, and the London 
press covered him with reproach ; whilst the court end 
of London, and the American planting interest sneered at 
the folly of expatriating our labor ; notwithstanding they 
knew that Europe was giving this country an adequate 
supply of labor, for all purposes of national prosperity 
and wealth, and at this hour we have more than we can 
employ. 

General Taylor, when he assumed the government, was 
moved to do and say something in the same direction. It 
will be remembered he recommended a revision of the laws 
relating to the slave trade, so as to admit of colonization 
on the w^est coast of Africa, giving his influence to the well 
remembered "Ebony Line,'' a line of transports designed 
to carry colored persons to Africa. On disclosing this policy, 
and its discussion in this country, the men of England des- 
patched the Hon. George Thompson, member of the British 
House of Commons for Tower Hamblets, to this country to 
abuse the advocates and friends of this measure; and well 
he performed his work. He called the plan of separation a 
venerable humbug, and could find no terms too offensive for 
its advocates. This was his second visit; he had visited 
this country in 1839; those visits had no other object but 
to divide the thinkers of this land, the philanthropists of 
this much distracted country, on the question of emancipation, 
and prostrate all schemes for the removal of the blacks, who 
he knew, and his masters knew, stood more in the way of 
our country's peace and progress, than any other human 
obstacle. Well did Mr. Thompson know, well did his 
masters, the diplomats of the British empire know, that we 



15 



could not make republican citizens out of our 3,000,000 
negroes, (now 4,500,000,) and remain free from faction and 
from strife. What did they require of us then ? What do 
they demand of us now ? Not only that the colored race 
shall be emancipated — a matter for which all our good men 
pray; but they required more. Exeter Hall was the agent 
of the demand, and the good and true, yet deluded men of 
New England, endorsed the bill, asking retention on the soil 
after the act of emancipation should take place, unaccom- 
panied with colonization, unattended with separation. We 
see that the London press has again opened its batteries on 
the colonization plan of this government, and we shall not 
wonder if they make it one of the counts in their new bill 
of indictment. May God be our help and guide, for we have 
embarrassments enough. 

Is it to be presumed that the men of the Mississippi 
valley, and the loyal men of the South, can look calmly on 
such a demand as places side by side with their children a 
nation of blacks 4,500,000 strong, soon to double and quad- 
ruple, with the dark and fearful prospect of a strife of race, 
and a possible corruption of blood in future generations, 
with sure changes in the civil institutions of this country in 
future years? Can it be supposed, with reason, that they 
will regard with indifference those men far removed in their 
northern or island homes, from possible contact with this 
undesirable population, who sneer at the dread and alarm of 
those sons of our Anglo-Saxon line located in the w^est and 
southwest, who fear the future and would avert its dangers? 

Thus wrought England at the North ; but equally potent has 
she been with the men of the South. She has a man for every 
work and every interest. Nor did it require so much effort 
to mould the opinions of the South. Her nobility and titled 
classes have always found strong supporters in South Caro- 
lina, amongst the remnants of the old tory families. Those 
lordly planters were always in good odor with the nobility 
of England. The leaders of the Gulf school no doubt 
received assurances of sympathy. Revenue laws, tarilT 
regulations, federal customs and duties, were regarded by 
both these parties as oppressive exactions not to be endured, 
but to he disregarded and nullified; that thereby the bands of 
mutual friendship might be drawn closer, to result in a 
substantial and lasting reunion. In South Carolina England' s 
royal interest and aristocratic pride were enshrined with a 
hope of future resurrection. For eighty years they slumbered. 



16 



It was but a slumber; the germ of future life was there- 
The petulance, the bursts of passion, the flippant talk of 
disunion, the actual effort in the days of Jackson, all betray 
a hope, a dependence on some outside power, some stay 
and support in the hour of need. Carefully was this 
fostered and slowly has it matured under the skilful hand of 
J. C. Calhoun and his followers, whilst the smiles and 
promises of British nobles, like the genial sun, has caused 
the royal crop to grow. Dr. Russell came to the South as 
George Thompson came to the North, the aid and advocate 
of an oppressed people, the friend of the gentlemen of the 
Gulf States; the truthful reporter of their virtues, their 
wrongs and injuries; the reflector of noble patronage, 
and promiser of ribbons, stars, and coronets. Under his 
able hand the royal crop became rapidly ripe, and with care 
he trained upwards its young shoots of revolutionary 
ambition. But the Trent case spoiled all his calculations ; 
he and his masters were baffled for the time by the prudence- 
and Avisdom of the Administration, and the few men in 
London who are really our friends. 

George Thompson and Dr. Russell are representative 
men of their class — puritan and cavalier — but whether 
puritan or cavalier, always English, intensely English^ always- 
anti-American, and dictatorial to their kinsmen of the 
Western hemisphere. 

The tories of the South, and the men of Exeter Hall, 
unite in their opposition to the removal of the negro from 
very different reasons ; but so far as the result is concerned, 
it serves the aim and end of British diplomats to distract 
and divide our plans and measures of national relief. 

Such in our opinion is the plot of this conspiracy, to 
which the Emperor of the French, we fear, has lately lent 
such secret aid and direction as to become the master of the 
storm ; and that, too, in contravention of the three great 
potent spells of his hitherto successful policy — non-interven- 
tion, imiversal suffrage, and the unity of nationalities, or 
races, with which he has brought the nations of the old 
world to his feet. We trust that it is now evident to him 
that the issues in our controversy, if disturbed by Eastern 
diplomacy, must become Eastern questions too; for the 
nations must and will examine the causes and reasons for 
our policy and conduct ; whilst it is well known that Amer- 
ican theories are dangerous to all systems of imperialism. 

But to return. The American people, the victims of this 



17 



management, abandoned themselves to tlie lead of two 
schools in policy, both, so far as the negro is concerned, 
driving in different ways at the same result — that of making 
the negro a permanent occupant of the Republic, as a dis- 
franchised laborer, or serf, with the sure corruption of 
republicanism as a result. 

The best and most philosophic view we have seen of the 
Southern plans and schemes, is that presented by L. W. 
Spratt, iniblished in the Charleston Blercury, of Fehruary ISth, 
1861, part of which we will now quote in justification of the 
charge made above, that the South aims at a change of our 
republican government, and desire the introduction of a 
privileged ruling class, possibly a monarchy. Throughout 
this strong, strange, and bold letter, we find the doctrines 
of those who call for a strong government — the government 
of the few, and the disfranchisement of the many. The 
following is his truly philosophic view of the situation : 

"The South is now in the formation of a slave republic. 
This, perhaps, is not admitted generally. There are many 
contented to believe that the South, as a geographical sec- 
tion, is in mere assertion of its independence ; that it is 
instinct with no especial truth — pregnant of no distinct 
social nature ; that for some unaccountable reason the two 
sections have become opposed to each other ; that for rea- 
sons equally insufficient, there is disagreement between the 
peoples that direct them ; and that from no overruling ne- 
cessity, no impossibility of co-existence, but as a mere mat- 
ter of policy,' it has been considered best for the South to 
strike out for herself and establish an independence of her 
own. This, I fear, is an inadequate conception of the con- 
troversy. The contest is not between the North and South 
as geographical sections — for between such sections, mere- 
ly, there can be no contest ; nor between the people of the 
North and the people of the South, for our relations have 
been pleasant, and on neutral grounds there is nothing to 
estrange us. We eat together, trade together, and practice 
yet, in intercourse, with great respect, the courtesies of 
common life. But the real contest is between the two forms 
of society which have become established, the one at the 
North and the other at the South. Society is essentially 
different from government; as different as is the nut from 
the bur, or the nervous body of the shell-fish from the bony 
structure which surrounds it ; and within this government 
two societies had become developed as variant in structure 
2 



18 

and distinct in form as any two beings in animated nature. 
The one is a society composed of one race — the other of 
two races. The one is bound together but by the two great 
social relations of husband and wife, and parent and child; 
the other by the three relations of husband and wife, and 
parent and child, and master and slave. The one embodies 
in its political structure the principle that equality is the 
right of man — the other that it is the right of equals only. 
The one, embodying the principle that equality is the right 
of man, expands upon the horizontal plane of pure democ- 
racy ; the other, embodying the principle that it is not the 
right of man, but of equals only, has taken to itself the 
rounded form of a social aristocracy ; in the one there is 
hireling labor, in the other slave labor ; in the one, there- 
fore, in theory, at least, labor is voluntary; in the other in- 
voluntary ; in the labor of the one there is the elective 
franchise, in the other there is not; and, as labor is always 
in excess of direction, in the one the power of government 
is only with the lower classes, in the other the upper; in the 
one, therefore, the reins of government come from the heels, 
in the other from the head, of the society; in the one it is 
guided by the worst, in the other by the best, intelligence ; 
in the one it is from those who have the least, in the other 
from those who have the greatest, stake in the continuance 
of existing order ; in the one the pauper laborer has power 
to rise and appropriate, by law, the goods protected by the 
State — when pressure comes, as come it must, there will be 
the motive to exert it — and thus the ship of State turns bot- 
tom upwards ; in the other there is no pauper labor with 
power of rising ; the ship of State has the ballast of a dis- 
franchised class; there is no possibility of political upheaval, 
therefore, and it is reasonably certain that, so steadied, it 
will sail erect, and onward, to an indefinitely distant period. 
Such are some of the more obvious differences in form and 
constitution between these two sections which had come to 
contact within the limits of the recent Union. And perhaps 
it is not the least remarkable in this connection, that while 
the one, a shapeless, organless, mere mass of social elements 
in no definite relation to each other, is loved and eulogized, 
and stands the ideal of the age, the other, comely and pro- 
portioned with labor and direction, mind and matter in just 
relation to each other, presenting analogy to the very high- 
est developments in animated nature, is condemned and 
reprobated. Even we ourselves have hardly ventured to 



19 



affirm it, while the cocks crow, in fact, are ready to deny it; 
and if it shall not perish on the cross of human judgment, 
it must be for the reason that the G-reat Eternal has not 
purposed that still another agent of his will shall come to 
such excess of human ignominy. 

"Such are the two forms of society which had come to 
contest within the structure of the recent Union. And the 
contest for existence was inevitable. Neither could concur 
in the requisitions of the other; neither could expand within 
the forms of a single government, without encroachment on 
the other. Like twin lobsters in a single shell, if such a 
thing were possible, the natural expansion of the one must 
be inconsistent with the existence of the other. Or, like 
an eagle and a fish, joined by an indissoluble bond — which, 
for no 'reason of its propriety, could act together, where the 
eagle could not share the fluid suited to the fish and live — 
where the fish could not share the fluid suited to the bird 
and live — and where one must perish that the other may 
survive, unless the unnatural union shall be severed, — so 
these societies could not, if they would, concur. The 
principal that races are unequal, and that among unequals 
inequality is right, would have been destructive to the form 
of pure democracy at the North. The principle that all 
men are equal and equally right, would have been 
destructive of slavery at the South. Each required the 
element suited to its social nature. Each must strive to 
make the government expressive of its social nature. The 
natural expansion of the one must become encroachment on 
the other, and so the contest was inevitable. Seward and 
Lincoln, in theory at least, whatever be their aim, are right. 
I realized the fact and so declared the conflict irrepressible 
years before either ventured to advance that proposition. 
Upon that declaration I have always acted, and the recent 
experience of my country has not induced me to question 
the correctness of that first conception. Nor is indignation at 
such leaders becoming the statesmen at the South. The 
tendency of social action was against us. The speaker, to 
be heard, must speak against slavery; the preacher, to retain 
his charge, must preach against slavery; the author, to be 
read, must write against slavery; the candidate, to attain 
office, must pledge himself against slavery; the office-holder, 
to continue, must redeem the pledges of the candidate. 
They did not originate the policy, but they pandered to it; 
they did not start the current, they but floated on it, and 



20 

were as powerless as drift-wood to control its course. The 
great tendency to social conflct pre-existed; it was in the 
heart of the North — it was in the very structure of Northern 
society. It was not a matter of choice but of necessity, 
that such society should disaffirm a society in contradiction 
of it. It was not a matter of choice but of necessity that 
it should approve of acts against it. In possession of 
power, it flowed to political action on the South, as fluids 
flow to lower levels. The acts of individuals were unim- 
portant. If I had possessed the power to change the mind 
of every republican in Congress, I would not have been at 
pains to do so. They would but have fallen before an indig- 
nant constituency, and men would have been sent to their 
places whose minds could never change. Nor, in fact, have 
they been without their uses. As the conflict was irre- 
pressible; as they were urged on by an inexorable power, 
it was important we should know it. Our own political 
leaders refused to realize the fact. The zealots of the North 
alone could force the recognition; and I am bound to own 
that Giddings and Greeley and Seward and Lincoln, parasites 
as they are, panderers to popular taste as they are, the 
instruments, and the mere instruments, of aggression, have 
done more to rouse us to the vindication of our rights than 
the bravest and the best amongst us. 

*'Such, then, was the nature of this contest. It was 
inevitable. It was inaugurated with the government. It 
began at the beginning, and almost at the start, the chances 
of the game were turned against us. If the foreign slave 
trade had never been suppressed, slave society must have 
triumphed. It extended to the limits of New England, 
pari passu; with emigrants from Europe came slaves from 
Africa. Step by step the two in union marched upon the 
West, and it is reasonably certain, had the means to further 
union been admitted, that so they would have continued to 
march upon the West ; that slave labor would have been 
cheaper than hireling labor ; that transcending agriculture, 
it would have expanded to the arts, and that thus, one 
homogeneous form of labor, and one homogeneous form of 
society — unquestioned by one single dreamer, and cherished 
at home and honored abroad — would have overspread the 
entire available surface of the late United States. But the 
slave trade suppressed, democratic society has triumphed. 
The States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and 
Delaware found an attractive market for their slaves. They 



21 



found a cheaper pauper labor to replace it — that pauper 
labor poured in from Europe ; while it replaced the slave, 
it increased the political power of the Northern States. 
More than 5,000,000 from abroad have been added to their 
number ; that addition has enabled them to grasp and hold 
the government. That government, from the very neces- 
sities of their nature, they are forced to use against us. 
Slavery was within its grasp, and forced to the option of 
extinction in the Union, or of independence out, it dares 
to strike, and it asserts its claim to nationality, and its 
right to recognition among the leading social systems of 
the world. 

"Such, then, being the nature of the contest, this Union 
has been disrupted in the effort of slave society to emanci- 
pate itself ] and the momentous question now to be deter- 
mined is, shall that effort be successful. That the republic 
of the South shall sustain her independence, there is little 
question. The form of our society is too pregnant of intel- 
lectual resources, and military strength, to be subdued, if 
in its products, it did not hold the bonds of amity and peace 
upon all the leading nations of the world. But in the inde- 
pendence of the South is there surely the emancipation of domestic 
slavery ? That is greatly to be doubted. Our property in 
slaves will be established. If it has stood in a government, 
more than half of which has been pledged to its destruction, 
it will surely stand in a government, every member of which 
will be pledged to its defence. But will it be established 
as a normal institution of society, and stand the sole exclu- 
sive social system of the South? That is the impending 
question, and the fact is yet to be recorded. That it will 
so stand somewhere at the South, I do not entertain the 
slightest question. It may be overlooked or disregarded 
now. It has been the vital agent of this great controversy. 
It has energized the arm of every man who acts a part in 
this great drama. We may shrink from recognition of the 
fact ; we may decline to admit the source of our authority; 
refuse to slavery an invitation to the table which she herself 
has so bountifully spread ; but not for that will it remain 
powerless, or unhonored. It may be abandoned by Virginia, 
Maryland, Missouri ; South Carolina herself may refuse to 
espouse it. The hireling laborer from the North and Europe 
may drive it from our seaboard. As the South shall become 
the centre of her own trade, the metropolis of her own 
commerce, the pauper population of the world v/ill pour 



22 



upon us. It may replace our slaves upon the seaboard, as 
it has replaced them in the Northern States ; but concen- 
trated in the States upon the Gulf it Avill make its stand ; 
condensed to the point at which the labor of the slave 
transcends the wants of agriculture, it will flow to other 
objects; it will lay its giant grasp upon still other 
departments of industry; its every step will be exclusive; 
it will be unquestioned lord of each domain on which it 
enters. With that perfect economy of resources, that just 
application of power, that concentration of forces, that 
security of order v/hich results to slavery from the perma- 
nent direction of its best intelligence, there is no other 
form of human labor that can stand against it, and it will 
build itself a home, and erect for itself, at some point within 
the present limits of the Southern States, a structure of 
imperial power and grandeur — a glorious Confederacy of 
States that will stand aloft and serene for ages amid the 
anarchy of democracies that will reel around it. 

"But 'it may be, that to this end, another revolution may 
be necessary. It is to be apprehended that this contest 
between democracy and slavery is not yet over.'' 

Such are the prescriptions and views of those advocates 
of anti- American theory. Is it wonderful that the life of 
the Commonwealth has been placed in jeopardy, and that 
this day we are undergoing the throes of exhausting civil 
war? Does it require further proof that we have been 
partly the victims of others, and partly in the position of 
the mariner without chart or compass, who vainly tries to 
reach the haven without a plan or policy? Is it strange 
that British statesmen, from their distant standpoint, saw 
this convulsion for many years approaching, and spoke of 
our troubles with the assurance of prophets. Did they not 
"foresee, because they foreknew?" 

If England is truly our friend, she has now a golden 
opportunity to disclose it. Let her people withdraw their 
opposition to the colonization of our blacks; let her open 
up the way for their settlement in Central America; continue 
to foster Liberia; manifest more sympathy for our work of 
making republican freemen, and less for making disfran- 
chised peasants; more for men who are their own masters, 
and less for those who lord it over the servant; more for 
the men who make their own laws and rulers, and less for 
those who rule by divine right — provided such a thing -is 
possible in a people who can see no political wisdom outside 
the British constitution, which provides for the three great 



23 



estates, king, lords, and commons — then will we "believe her 
friendship sincere. We are not forgetful of the palliating 
fact, that her press and statesmen cannot, dare not, discuss 
the true reasons why the American people must colonize the 
negro, lest they should precipitate the republican tendency 
of their own people, by telling them that that system of 
government requires an equality of civil rights and fran- 
chise. Such discussion would be fatal to their empire and 
their power. 

The government of Great Britain is composed of a few- 
thousand titled and privileged persons, located in a small 
island, who are born to rule and govern. From their isolated 
position it is not possible for them to come in contact with 
the numerous, heterogeneous, and inferior tribes and races 
under their rule. They are thus protected from possible 
admixture of inferior blood, not only by their isolated 
position, but by carefully cultivating aristocratic pride of 
birth, of rank, and caste. From this small centre they extend 
their rule over a vast empire, the power not going up from 
the people, as with us, hut going doiun to the people, and 
extending out to them through the iron arm of imperial 
authority. The British government, as a strong centralized 
power, can with ease throw the iron bands around differing 
tribes, heterogeneous masses, and distant provinces, and, 
by external pressure, give unity to the whole. Such a gov- 
ernment can distribute just so much civil liberty and elective 
franchise to. the home population, distant tribes, hetero- 
geneous populations, and remote provinces, as may be 
regarded safe for the ruling classes. Hence, some of the 
people of Great Britain are electors, others not; some of 
the provinces have large liberties, others have not; equal 
rights for all the people being no part of the British 
system. 

How can such a people comprehend the necessity or use 
of removing the man of color? And those of them who do, 
dare not discuss it. The usual course with them, therefore, 
is to sneer or misrepresent our view^s and plans of coloniza- 
tion, and hold in light esteem the fears of those large por- 
tions of the American people, know as colonizationists, who 
have neither the citadel of an island home, nor the laws of 
rank and class to protect them against this repulsive admix- 
ture of blood. Here we stand on the open plain of republican 
institutions and plain simplicity of manners; all the guards 
peculiar to European society have been broken down, 



24 



obliged by our fundamental laws to give equal rights to all 
our citizens. What is to protect us as a people from degen- 
erating as a race, but the resolve to receive no blood from 
the other races but that which can be honorably and safely 
engrafted on the stock of the nation. As we understand it, 
this is the only right you reserve, when you lay the liberties 
and privileges of a great republic at the feet of the nations 
of the' earth. You reserve the right to choose your future 
citizens; but to such as you cannot receive, you say, not as 
empires do, come and serve us and we will bless you with 
our iron rule; but you say, go and establish a government 
like this, as for our people, the men of Europe, we constitute 
one famity, ordered so of God, and by him kept compact 
and together through the ages gone ; we will restrain cupidity, 
and refrain from extending dominion into your tropical 
home, go and establish such a political family for yourselves; 
you shall have our aid, our fraternal sympathy and support; 
we will tax ourselves to give you nationality and freedom. 
Such have been the utterances of our great men in the past, 
such is the economy of the true men of the present. Then 
why should England murmur at our giving nationality to 
the negro? It is the best our Republic can do for them and 
ourselves. However, we will express the conviction that 
many of the gentlemen of the present English administration 
are truly our friends, but they are embarrassed in their 
position by the republican tendency of their people, as this 
nation has been by the imperial tendency of ours; yet how 
can that nation, or any other, object to our work of coloniza- 
tion? Does not this work necessarily imply the gradual 
emancipation of the slave and the entire extirpation of the 
institution of slavery? For how can slaves be colonized 
unless first freed ? 

Let us, then, earnestly and respectfully recommend as a 
remedy for our present troubles and future danger^ the perfect- 
ing the proposed plans of the administration in regard 
to those two conflicting races, and the careful and gradual 
removal of the colored race to some desirable and conve- 
nient home. This suggests that the tropical lands of our 
own hemisphere should be devoted to their use, and that 
all available means should be seized to pour a flood of Anglo- 
African civilization on the tropical lands of the old hemis- 
phere most accessible to us, (Western Africa.) In doing 
this we take from imperialism its temptation to tamper with 
our republicanism; for by preserving the heterogeneous 



25 



character of our population, we perpetuate our republican 
equality in social and civil life. 

It further suggests that our legislation should cover the 
wants and well-being of both races, and that statesmen 
should consider, firsts the good of the white race, then the 
good and well-being of the black ; making at least as liberal 
appropriations for the colonization of the negro as have 
been made for the colonization of the Indian, upon whom 
millions on millions have been expended with but imperfect 
success in the cause of civilization, whilst the slender means 
of the friends of the African civilization have produced 
lasting results. Some affect to fear that the man of color 
will not remove to a separate locality. It is not to be 
expected that a race, which has hardly attained a mental 
majority, will rise in a day to the stature of the men who 
found empires, build cities, and lay the ground work of 
civil institutions like ours ; nor should they be expected to 
do this unaided and alone. They should receive the kind 
attention, direction, and aid of those who understand such 
things ; nor will the world condemn a gentle pressure in 
the forward course to overcome the natural inertia of masses 
long used to the driver's will and rod. Let us do justice in 
the provision we make for their future comfort, and surely 
they will do justice to our distracted Republic. If they 
should fail to do this, there would then be more propriety in 
weighing the requirement of some to remove without con- 
sultation, hut not till then. The more intelligent men of color 
can now see the necessity that rests upon us, and they 
will aid us in this work. We know that there is a growing 
sentiment in the country which considers the removal of the 
freed man, without consulting him, *'a moral and military 
necessity — as a measure necessary to the purity of public 
morals and the peace of the country; and this unhappy war 
of white man with white man, about the condition of the 
black, will multiply this sentiment. But we cannot go 
further now than suggesting, that the mandatory relation 
held by the rebel master should escheat to the Federal 
government in a modified sense, so as to enable his proper 
government and gradual removal to a proper home where 
he can be independent. 

" God ordained in the beginning a separate and distinct 
subsistence for the great races of men, 'when he separated 
the sons of Adam,^ (when) 'he set the bounds of the peo- 
ple,' 'when he determined the times before appointed, 
3 



26 



and the bounds of their habitation.^' An observance of this 
Divine economy is essential to the peace and happiness of 
the human family, whilst every departure from it, caused b}^ 
cupidity or ambition, results in oppression to the many, and 
corruption to the few. 

We earnestly pray that a perpetual barrier may be reared 
between us and that land of the mixed races of this conti- 
nent — Mexico. That, so far as this nation is concerned, we 
shall forever guarantee the integrity of her country, and so 
adjust our policy, that she might gradually receive our col- 
ored people, which, w^hen added to her already large body 
of five and a half or six millions people of mixed race, would 
give her a population of near 12,000,000 persons of mixed 
caste, and, in the course of half a century, she will have a 
strong and compact community of near twenty million per- 
sons of color. It is the conviction of millions that this 
should be the line of policy towards Mexico and Central 
America. As Abraham and Lot agreed to separate their 
conflicting retainers and dependents, the one going to the 
right and the other to the left, so let those two governments 
agree to divide this continent between the Anglo-American 
and mixed races, the latter taking that which nature, in her 
wisdom, has prepared for them, and which for beauty, fer- 
tility, and grandeur of scenery, cannot be equaled on the 
globe — a country once the seat of empire and home of 
ancient civilization, the monuments of which abound in 
Central America. 

If we would retain our republicanism, it must become a 
fixed principle with us not to add territory to our country 
on the south, unless that territory is uninhabited; for every 
square mile added which is encumbered with a mixed race 
of local and fixed habits, (unused to migration like the 
Mexican and Central American Indian, and Negro races,) 
adds danger, trouble, and sure decay to republicanism. 
Statesmen may boast that "it is our manifest destiny to 
annex all the adjoining country and cover it with our insti- 
tutions." With all due respect to them, we say they speak 
without reflection. Our republican institutions are not 
adapted to mixed races and classified people. Our institu- 
tions require a homogeneous population to rest on as a basis; 
without this basis, the continuance of repulicanism, for any 
great length of time, is impossible. 

"Power is ever stealing from the many to the few," and 
ambitious and designing men are ever on the alert to take 



27 



advantage of actual or accidental differences in race, nation- 
ality, or religion, to divide the masses of a republic into 
permanent factions or bands ; the effect of which, is the 
introduction, first, of an oligarchy, to be soon followed by 
a monarchy. The true preservative against this tendency 
is a removal of slaves and serfs; a thorough amalgamation 
of such populations as we agree to receive — educated 
electors and citizens, reverence for God and his word, 
which will give moral strength to the nation ; and this will 
ever prove a guard against imperialism. 

Such are the difSctilt alternatives for American and Afri- 
can ; but they are not so hard on the African as the suffer- 
ings now resting on millions of Americans, because they 
were not considered long ago. Let us not talk of the hard- 
ships of separation and migration, in the light of burning 
cities, ruined fortunes, States desolated, murdered kindred, 
homeless families, widowed mothers, helpless orphans, and 
the nameless woes of this struggle of imperialism to regain 
its hold on a free people. If we wish to retain our repub- 
licanism, or rather perfect what Washington and Jefferson 
began, we should adopt as nearly as we can the above rules 
of life and government. It is then we can present to the 
world a compact and united people — educated and powerful 
— honoring God and his word— /ree from cupidity^ that cause 
of aggression and lorong — making our own rulers, and respect- 
ing them when made. In this position, and with these 
qualifiations, in the order of Providence, we must become 
" ^/ze light of the loorld.^' 

We will close this plea for the nationality of the negro 
and the peace of this nation, by making a few inquiries. 

Will not New England, which is now placing untold 
treasure and the best blood of her sons on the altar of the 
country, go one step further and sacrifice therewith pride 
of opinion in reference to the gradual removal of this people, 
hereby taking away the conflict of opinion as a first step to 
unity of national counsel, to be followed we trust by 
national peace? 

Will not the loyal men of the South and West cut up by 
the roots every fake principle in southern policy that bears 
the imprint of that apostle of imperial rule, John C. 
Calhoun, and remove from place and power such as have 
been untrue to the teachings of Washington and Jefferson 
on the negro question? or will they stand up in the light of 
this age, the inflexible advocates of an inexorable servitude 



28 



for the black man, until the surcharged thunder-clouds of 
other and worse revolutions burst on their country ? 

Will not the men of England enable us to respect, if not 
love, the land which has given us our language, most of our 
institutions, and national life, by permitting us to mature 
plans and opinions in harmony with our civil and social 
structure, undisturbed by the doctrines of imperial society 
and life ? 

And will not the good men of this country sink party in 
patriotism in the support of the wise measures already pro- 
posed on this subject, asking the intelligent free man of 
color to reflect and act in harmony with such measures as 
tend to peace ? 

May that Power which rules the destiny of nations grant 
that the above may receive an affirmative answer^ and that 
your hands may be strengthened in this hour of peril I 

Respectfully submitted. 

JAMES MITCHELL. 

Washington, May 18, 1862. 



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